Maybe it’s a mosquito bite or chiggers or perhaps hives caused by a medication allergy or maybe a contact dermatitis like some folks get from triple antibiotic ointment (allergy to Neomycin most often) or that almost everyone gets from coming in contact with Rhus toxicodendron (poison ivy). It drives most of us absolutely batty, and we want to scratch or apply cold, or Calamine lotion, or take an antihistamine medicine of some kind.
Not all itches are created equal. Some folks have atopic dermatitis (eczema) that causes relentless itching with or without asthma or hay fever. I’ve seen it in patients, friends, and even members of my extended family. It sucks.
I was thinking about itching today for a couple of reasons. First, I have an itchy area on my left hip and buttock. It doesn’t bother me except sometimes at night as I try to fall asleep. There is no rash or other kind of skin irritation – just itch. It’s something relatively recent, and I wonder whether it is some kind of weird neuropathic symptom. Who knows? At least it isn’t relentless or painful – just annoying. Second, I recently saw a TV advertisement for a Janus Kinase inhibitor (one of the drugs that ends in -nib) that can provide relief to folks with eczema unresponsive to other treatments.
It’s nice that medical and pharmaceutical progress brings new treatments to folks who have otherwise no recourse but to live with relentless rash and itch. But, as Heinlein popularized in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress many years ago, TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The TV ad warns that folks who take this medication have an increased risk of certain cancers like lung cancer and lymphoma, rare infections (like TB and systemic fungal infections), heart attack, stroke, and tears of the stomach and intestine – to mention only the ones that caught my attention.
I have to ask myself, “How bad must the itch be for me to accept such treatment risks?” There is no right answer, of course.