[Rehabilitation for patients with chronic pruritus]. / Rehabilitation bei Patienten mit chronischem Pruritus.

BACKGROUND: For a long time, chronic pruritus was considered difficult to treat. Modern therapy options and detailed guidelines have created new opportunities for patients to improve their quality of life. However, due to the complexity of the disease, the need for multimodal treatment remains. OBJECTIVES: This article aims to investigate whether dermatological rehabilitation offers additional benefits to those affected and whether it should therefore be part of the treatment concept for chronic pruritus. METHODS: After introduction of the pruritus program of a rehabilitation clinic, a prospective study is presented that focuses on the patient-relevant benefits of therapy. It used standardized questionnaires to record pruritus intensity, the presence of depression, anxiety, itch-related limitations, and quality of life in patients with chronic pruritus before and after rehabilitation. RESULTS: Of the patients surveyed, 91.7% achieved a patient-relevant benefit through rehabilitation. Pruritus intensity, depression, anxiety, itch-related limitations, and restrictions on quality of life decreased significantly. Almost half of all participating patients had been initially diagnosed more than 10 years ago. CONCLUSIONS: Dermatological rehabilitation with a multimodal concept for the treatment of chronic pruritus can help affected patients and should be part of the therapy concept. This should be done as early as possible before the disease progresses over a long period of time and makes treatment more difficult.

Content and value of rehabilitation in dermatology.

The therapy of chronic skin diseases is challenging for both the dermatologist and the patient. Current standards of therapy and individual circumstances of the patient have to be considered. Furthermore, chronic skin diseases are often associated with comorbidities that require treatment adapted to the individual. Therefore, optimal education of the patient and a holistic concept of therapy are needed, in many cases in collaboration with various medical disciplines. In this case, rehabilitation provides an opportunity to address important aspects such as comorbidities, psychosocial burden and limitations at work, in addition to treating the underlying disease. This article describes the differences between acute and rehabilitation health care in dermatology, and illustrates the importance of rehabilitation in dermatology, based on examples of chronic inflammatory skin diseases, chronic pruritus and dermato-oncological diseases.