Olanzapine for the Treatment of Psychiatric Illness and Urticaria: A Case Report

Can we use psychoactive drugs to treat pruritus?

“…Hyun et al evaluated 4 patients with prurigo and initiated therapy with olanzapine 5 mg/d, followed by increase to 10 mg/d, with a marked improvement in all patients. Girshman et al reported a case of an 18‐year‐old man with a psychiatric episode (differential diagnosis included bipolar disorder and primary psychotic disorder) who additionally had been experiencing marked urticarial dermographism accompanied by pruritus since childhood. Following unsuccessful therapy with risperidone, olanzapine 25 mg/d was initiated, resulting in marked psychiatric improvement, alleviation of dermographism and disappearance of pruritus.…”