Skin pain is starting to gain more attention in pediatric populations as an important feature of atopic dermatitis (AD). But is it overlooked in clinical practice in favor of more familiar symptoms like itch?
A review in Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology set out to address that question as well as identify treatments that do and don't work for skin pain in AD.
First author, Gabriele Simonetti, MD, is with the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Florence in Italy. The authors were unavailable for interview, but we have distilled and organized excerpts from the paper into a Q&A format to make it useful for readers.
How prevalent is skin pain in children with AD, and what is its impact?
While itch is usually well evaluated in all AD patients, skin pain often remains underestimated -- especially in pediatric populations, where evidence on its assessment and management remains limited.
