Which patients with chronic pruritus are presented for psychological assessment by their dermatologists? Results from a consecutive sample

Criteria Suggestive of Psychological Components of Itch and Soma­toform Itch: Study of a Large Sample of Patients with Chronic Pruritus

“…Between 2007 and 2016, data on 6,374 CP inpatients were entered into the database. As reported before ( 14 , 17 ), 560 (8.8%) of them had been referred for a PP consultation. Fig.…”

“…Such referrals made by the treating dermatologists were not based on well-defined criteria. The differences between patients who were and those who were not referred for a PP consultation were examined in an earlier study ( 14 ). Those referred for this consultation were evaluated in a clinical interview lasting about 1 h by specialists trained in PP investigation in order to determine if they met the criteria for F45.8 or F54 of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) ( 7 ).…”

Subjective and Objective Characteristics of Patients Seen at a Psychodermatology Unit: One-year Experience in Malmö, Sweden

“…Most of the patients in this study (72%) reported itch, which is more than the 54% of patients attending general dermatology clinics across Europe who reported itch as a symptom (17). The range of somatic and psychiatric comorbidity described from such pruritus services is similar to that encountered in this report (18). This could be because dermatologists find that itchy patients are difficult to treat in a general out-patient clinic and, therefore, some are referred to a psychodermatology clinic.…”

Selected genes polymorphisms and the risk of non‐syndromic striae. A case–control study in the Polish population

“…We described previously which patient-related aspects might contribute to this clinical decision. 10 Psychiatric-psychosomatically trained investigators performed a clinical interview lasting about one hour. As previously reported, 10 427 (77.1%) of the referred CP patients were diagnosed with at least one PP diagnosis according to ICD-10, chapter F. Among these, the most frequent diagnosis was 'psychological/psychosomatic co-factors in pruritus' (F54) in 74.5%, followed by depression (F32-F33-F34) in 30.7%, adjustment disorder (F43.2) in 17.8%, dissociative or somatoform disorder or hypochondria (F44-F45) in 11.2%, anxiety or compulsive disorder (F40-F41-F42) in 6.6% and other diagnoses in 17.0%.…”

“…Although the original BoPPK questionnaire was developed in French, a validated methodology was applied to generate a US English-language version involving cultural and linguistic validation. 10 Cross-cultural validation with US patients would be helpful in consolidating our tools. Other world languages could be made available (in accordance with the method) to healthcare providers, patients and their families.…”