RESEARCH ARTICLE


Assessing Treatment of Pruritic Scalp



Craig G. Burkhart*, 1, 2, Craig N. Burkhart3
1 University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, USA
2 Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, 5600 Monroe Street, Suite 106B, Sylvania, Ohio 43560, USA
3 Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University College of Medicine Chicago, Illinois, USA


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Creative Commons License
© 2008 Burkhart and Burkhart.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at 5600 Monroe Street, Suite 106B, Sylvania, Ohio 43560, USA; Tel: 419-885-3403; Fax: 419-885-3401; E-mail:cgbakb@aol.com


Abstract

Pruritic scalp has not traditionally been specifically categorized as a separate dermatologic condition; but rather it has been included within the broad category of seborrheic dermatitis. This has severely limited testing and understanding of this entity.

The objective of this study was to assess patient satisfaction with various topical and oral therapies for pruritic scalp. For this purpose, an open-label, five-week study, 12 patients with pruritic scalp were given five different therapies, each to be used for one week. The participants then completed a survey to assess their opinion on the different therapies.

No one treatment was universally preferred. Lanacaine solution and steroid solution achieved slightly higher marks. In a few cases, oral antihistamines proved curative.

In short, pruritic scalp is a distinct condition in which one experiences episodic itching of the head without any visible or pathological sign of psoriasis, head lice, or any other scalp disorder. The divergent responses in this study underlines that there are probably different factors and trigger points which elicit the condition. More studies on this entity are warranted.