Chronic prurigo (CPG), including prurigo nodularis, is difficult to treat and dramatically affects quality of life.
So, how can dermatologists best assess whether a treatment working or not?
Enter the Prurigo Control Test, which has passed muster and may be the first patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) to determine disease control and guide treatment decisions in patients with CPG, according to new research in JAMA Dermatology.
For the study, researchers developed and validated the 5-item Prurigo Control Test with a recall period of 2 weeks. A cutoff value of 10 points or higher was determined to be suitable for identifying patients with well-controlled vs poorly controlled CPG.
In the study of 95 patients, the PCT demonstrated good known-group validity and could discriminate between patients who differed in prurigo control, and the results indicated “excellent reproducibility.”
The 5-item Prurigo Control Test comprises these questions for patients:
- Overall, how severe were your skin lesions in the past 2 weeks?
- How often did you have to scratch yourself because of your skin disease in the last 2 weeks?
- How often has your skin disease prevented you from sleeping normally in the last 2 weeks?
- How much was your quality of life impaired by your skin disease in the last 2 weeks?
- How well has your therapy been able to control your skin disease in the last 2 weeks?
“Results of this qualitative study show that the PCT is, to our knowledge, the first tool to assess disease control in patients with CPG. Its retrospective approach, brevity, and simple scoring likely make the PCT suitable for clinical practice and trials,” conclude researchers who were led by Martin Metz, MD, of the Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
