ABSTRACT
Modern concept of pruritus diagnosis and therapy Abstract. Pruritus can be best treated when the cause of itching is known, allowing a targeted treatment. To find the cause of itching it is recommended to consult the itch classification system of the «International Forum for the Study of Itch¼ (IFSI). In here three groups of conditions are distinguished: Pruritus on diseased (inflamed) skin (group I) is caused by a pruritic skin disorder that has to be diagnosed properly; correct treatment of the skin disorder will be the treatment of pruritus. Pruritus on non-diseased (non-inflamed) skin (group II) can be due to an internal disease or a consequence of drugs; elimination of the cause - as far as possible - will also eliminate itch. In pruritus presenting with severe chronic secondary scratch lesions (group III) the aim will be to prevent patients from further scratching. If causative treatment is not possible or the cause of itch remains unknown a symptomatic treatment will be seeked following a step-by-step procedure. In a step 1 a basic therapy with moisturizers and anthistamines is recommended. Step 2 comprises a symptomatic causative adapted therapy. In step 3 phototherapy and systemic treatments are considered including the use of anticonvulsants, antidepressants or anti-inflammatory agents.
Subject(s)
Pruritus , Skin Diseases , Administration, Cutaneous , Humans , Phototherapy , Pruritus/diagnosis , Pruritus/therapy , Skin , Skin Diseases/diagnosis , Skin Diseases/therapyABSTRACT
Pruritus is a frequent symptom in medicine. Population-based studies show that every 5th person in the general population has suffered from chronic pruritus at least once in the lifetime with a 12-month incidence of 7%. In patient populations its frequency is much higher depending on the underlying cause, ranging from around 25% in haemodialysis patients to 100% in skin diseases such as urticaria and atopic dermatitis (AD). Pruritus may be the result of a dermatological or non-dermatological disease. Especially in non-diseased skin it may be caused by systemic, neurological or psychiatric diseases, as well as being a side effect of medications. In a number of cases chronic pruritus may be of multifactorial origin. Pruritus needs a precise diagnostic work-up. Management of chronic pruritus comprises treatment of the underlying disease and topical treatment modalities, including symptomatic antipruritic treatment, ultraviolet phototherapy and systemic treatment. Treating chronic pruritus needs to be targeted, multimodal and performed in a step-wise procedure requiring an interdisciplinary approach. We present the updated and consensus based (S2k) European guideline on chronic pruritus by a team of European pruritus experts from different disciplines. This version is an updated version of the guideline that was published in 2012 and updated in 2014 (www.euroderm.org).