Scalp Pruritus: Review of the Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Management

Table 1

Proposed clinical classification of scalp pruritus.

Classification	Associated disease
Dermatologic conditions	Inflammatory dermatoses: acne necrotica, alopecia areata, angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia, atopic dermatitis, central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, contact dermatitis, discoid lupus erythematosus, folliculitis decalvans, frontal fibrosing alopecia, insect bite, lichen planopilaris, lichen simplex chronicus, pityriasis amiantacea, psoriasis, red scalp disease, scars, seborrheic dermatitis, urticaria, xerosis; Infectious dermatoses: cutaneous larva migrans, folliculitis, impetigo, pediculosis capitis, scabies, tinea capitis; Autoimmune dermatoses: bullous pemphigoid, dermatitis herpetiformis; Neoplasms: leukemia cutis, lymphoma cutis
Neuropathic conditions	Atypical facial neuralgia, brain and spinal cord injury, brain tumors, migraine headache, narrowing of the bony foramina from osteoarthritis, post herpetic neuralgia, scalp dysesthesia, Wallenberg syndrome
Systemic conditions	Cholestatic liver disease, chronic renal failure, dermatomyositis, diabetes mellitus, drug-induced pruritus (dobutamine), eosinophilic arteritis of the scalp, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Psychogenic conditions	Anxiety disorders, delusional parasitosis, depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, schizophrenia, somatoform and dissociative disorders, tactile hallucinations
Scalp pruritus of undetermined origin	Sensitive skin