Psychiatric Comorbidities in Non-psychogenic Chronic Itch, a US based Study

Research suggests that itch and psychiatric diseases are intimately related. In efforts to examine the preva-lence of psychiatric diagnoses in patients with chronic itch not due to psychogenic causes, we conducted a retrospective chart review of 502 adult patients diag-nosed with chronic itch in an outpatient dermatology clinic specializing in itch and assessed these patients for a co-existing psychiatric disease. Psychiatric di-sease was identified and recorded based on ICD-10 codes made at any point in time which were recor-ded in the patient's electronic medical chart, which includes all medical department visits at the Univer-sity of Miami. Fifty-five out of 502 (10.9%) patients were found to have a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis based on ICD-10 codes. The most common psychiatric diagnoses were anxiety disorders (45.5%), followed by major depressive disorder (36.4%). There was no significant association of any specific type of itch to a particular psychiatric disorder. No unique itch charac-teristics were noted in patients with underlying psy-chiatric diagnoses.