Abstract
Background A majority of psoriatic patients suffer from pruritus, but little is known about its mediator. Pruritus of psoriasis was thought to have been predominantly mediated by histamine, but the recent data suggest non-histamine mediators play the major role. Objective This paper reviews current published research on the mediators of pruritus in psoriatic patients. Methods English articles between 1980 and 2008, using the key words pruritus, psoriasis, itching, mechanism, and mediators, searched on MEDLINE and PubMed, were reviewed. Results Histamines appear to play little role in mediating pruritus in psoriatic patients, while other factors such as substance P (SP), nerve growth factor (NGF) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) were shown to be more convincingly associated in mediating psoriatic pruritus. Conclusion The results indicate the possibility that there exist multiple mediators of pruritus with major involvement of the central nervous system (CNS).
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