Chronic pruritus is frequently refractory to currently available treatments. Studies suggest that pruritus may arise from an imbalance of the mu- and kappa-opioid receptor system activity in either the skin or the central nervous system. Stimulation of kappa-opioid receptors by their agonists inhibits pruritus in both animals and humans. The antipruritic effect of kappa-opioid receptors agonists can currently be assumed to be related to their binding to kappa-opioid receptors on keratinocytes and cutaneous and/or central itch neurones. To date, several case reports and 2 controlled trials have demonstrated a beneficial effect of systemic kappa-opioid receptor agonists in the treatment of uraemic pruritus, prurigo nodularis, paraneoplastic and cholestatic pruritus. Nalfurafine hydrochloride (Remitch(®)), a selective kappa-opioid receptor agonist, is approved for the treatment of chronic pruritus in Japan. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the promising role of kappa- opioid receptors and their agonist in the pathophysiology and treatment of pruritus.

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This study aims to explore the political theoretical background of governing populism in Hungary. It has been argued here that the political success of Viktor Orbán’s Governments are based on mixing three main political theoretical pillars: 1) the concept of the Political elaborated by Carl Schmitt; 2) the Weberian concept leader democracy; 3) and political constitutionalism. What is common in these three tendencies is the promise of repoliticisation. I will elaborate in this study that elitist populism and illiberal democracy are the two core concepts which can synchronize and converge the various (and sometimes contradictory) political theoretical backgrounds of Orbán’s regime. I also put forward here that the populist promise of political leadership is inherently false, because instead of repoliticisation, populist forces monopolize political representation and liquidate political responsibility.

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The paper examines the CSOs – government relations during the COVID-19 pandemic, first introducing how the pandemic affected the already authoritarian regime in Hungary and how this regime utilized the epidemic to extend and fortify its power. Then the paper presents the antecedents of the relationship between civil society and government in the frame of the National System of Cooperation (NSC). This relationship is unilaterally dominated by the government, and it may appear as a “4C strategy”: Cooptation, Coercion, Crowding out, Creation (the creation of a new, loyal civil society). Exploring the civil society and government relations during the pandemic, the study will conclude that there was no government attempt to coordinate the activities of CSOs or to try to harmonize sectoral cooperation from a broader perspective. The occurrences demonstrated the explosion of solidarity and the carnival of solidarity. These forms of solidarity, however, remain informal and leave deepening structural problems untouched. The paper presents the results of an empirical research which was conducted between March and September of 2020. The nodal points of the research include the resilience and flexibility of the organizations, their efforts to assist during the emergency and lockdown, as well as the issues of networking and the nature of their relations with the national and local authorities.