Review Article Pruritus in Systemic Diseases: A Review of Etiological Factors and New Treatment Modalities

Copyright © 2015 Nagihan Tarikci et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Pruritus is the most frequently described symptom in dermatology and can significantly impair the patient’s quality of life. In 10–50 % of adults with persistent pruritus, it can be an important dermatologic clue for the presence of a significant underlying systemic disease such as renal insufficiency, cholestasis, hematologic disorder, or malignancy (Etter and Myers, 2002; Zirwas and Seraly, 2001).This review describes the presence of pruritus in different systemic diseases. It is quite important to discover the cause of pruritus for providing relief for the patients experiencing substantial morbidity caused by this condition. 1. Pruritus Pruritus is a topic that has caused a great deal of controversy because it is difficult to characterize and define. Various indirect definitions proposed include a sensation which provokes the desire to scratch or an uneasy sensation of irritation in the skin [1]. The itch impulse is transmitted from peripheral nerves to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, across the cord via th