I learned that many years ago at the impressionable age of 18, as I shared a hospital room with an elderly patient who suffered from chronic, severe vaginal itch. If the thought of that doesn't make you wince, this might – I could hear the attending and resident physicians standing just outside the door of our room talk about her as if we, the patients, weren't there. They didn't have a clue how to help her. So they decided the problem must be all in her head. One said in an irritated voice, "Let her go home and itch."
Courtesy flickr user janhatesmarcia (Creative Commons)
That was 1974. Oh, how times have changed. Today, physicians and researchers are recognizing that chronic itch is like chronic pain – once it is present, it can permanently change the central nervous system to make treatment much more difficult, Dr. Timothy Berger explained at Skin Disease Education Foundation's (SDEF) Las Vegas Dermatology Seminar. We might begin to see treatments that act not just peripherally but centrally.
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) on Oct. 29, 2010, held its first roundtable discussion on pruritus, said Dr. Berger, of the University of California, San Francisco. A summary of the meeting and a list of attendees will be posted on the NIAMS Web site before the end of 2010, according to NIAMS media liaison Trish Reynolds.
Courtesy flickr user fifikins (Creative Commons)
Pruritus experts have expressed interest in following the example set by some European centers to create major referral centers for itch, much like pain referral centers, Dr. Berger said. Patients with difficult itching would be referred to these centers, which would collect and analyze data, store tissue samples, and tackle pruritus in a much more organized and – hopefully – successful way.
"We're now at the point where we might be able to do something about itch," he said.
Now, that's what I call relief.
–Sherry Boschert
SDEF and this news organization are owned by Elsevier.