Maintenance of remission with low-dose olopatadine hydrochloride for itch in well-controlled chronic urticaria.
BACKGROUND
The long-term follow-up of chronic urticaria (CU) is important to ensure the adequate treatment of patients. Olopatadine hydrochloride is one of the second-generation nonsedating antihistamines.


METHODS
This study was designed to assess the optimal dose of olopatadine to suppress symptoms of chronic urticarial itch in well-controlled patients. After CU patients were treated with 10 mg olopatadine, patients having a visual analog scale (VAS) itch score of less than 20 were randomly allocated into one of three groups: 10 mg/day (n = 35), 5 mg/day (n = 30), or no medication (n = 32).


RESULTS
The suppressive effects of both the 5 mg and 10 mg olopatadine treatments on the VAS itch score were more significant and longer lasting over a period of 4 weeks than the no-medication treatment. Both the 5-mg group and the 10-mg group showed improved urticarial symptoms and maintained their VAS itch score within normal limits compared to the no-medication group. The differences between the 5-mg and 10-mg groups were not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate that treatment with olopatadine at a dose of 5 mg once daily is effective and safe for the management and prevention of CU symptoms for itch in well-controlled patients.
Department of Dermatology, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan;
Teruhiko
T
Makino
Yoshiaki
Y
Takegami
Mati Ur
MU
Rehman
Yoko
Y
Yoshihisa
Waka
W
Ishida
Takashi
T
Toyomoto
Tadamichi
T
Shimizu