High unmet need in severe chronic pruritus in the United States: results from a survey of practicing community dermatologists

Introduction: Chronic pruritus (CP) is a symptom of many diseases, but there is a scarcity of data on this condition in the US. Methods: We surveyed practicing, community-based US dermatologists about aspects of CP, including the number of patients seen annually, patient characteristics, treatments, and level of unmet need. US dermatologists who responded to a screening survey and reported managing ≥10 patients with CP per year were administered a 55-question web-based survey. The survey was conducted from March 27 to April 10, 2015. Results: A total of 212 survey responses were included in the analysis. The prevalence of CP in the dermatologists’ practices in the previous year was reported as 4.8%. Of 9 dermatologic conditions in the survey, CP was rated as having the highest level of unmet need (8.6 on a 10-point scale). Respondents reported that 32.7% of their patients had CP classified as severe/very severe, with 53.7% of patients having CP lasting for >1 year. Most dermatologists prescribed antihistamines (77.5%) or corticosteroids (76.1%) as first-line therapy to their patients with severe/very severe CP, and 36.3% of their patients did not respond to currently available treatments. Discussion: The combined prevalence of CP and its high level of unmet need necessitate the development of effective/tolerable treatments for this patient population.