Comparative Study between Sertraline and Omega-3 Supplementation in The Treatment of Uremic Pruritus in Hemodialysis Patient

Elghareib, Mohamed Fathy; Fouda, Ibrahim; Khodair, Hassan; Al-Adl, Ahmed Salama

doi:10.21608/ijma.2020.31065.1127

Comparative Study between Sertraline and Omega-3 Supplementation in The Treatment of Uremic Pruritus in Hemodialysis Patient

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Dermatology, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt

² Department of Internal Medicine, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

10.21608/ijma.2020.31065.1127

Abstract

Background: Pruritus in uremic patients decreases the quality of life because of sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety, thus, pruritus remains an important health issue in ESRD patients.
Aim of the work:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sertraline versus omega 3 supplementation in the treatment of uremic pruritus.
Patients and Methods:This randomized case control study was conducted on patients with ESRD patients .All studied subjects had been collected from the Al-Azhar hospital [Damietta] Dialysis Center. This study had been carried out on 50 patients divided into: Group [A] : consists of 25patients had been received 50 mg sertraline twice a day for 8 weeks. Group [B]: consists of 25 patients and had been receive 3 gm omega-3 daily.
Results: Although pruritus severity decrease signiﬁcantly in both groups and both scoring systems [P<0.001], the reduction was signiﬁcantly more in sertraline group [p
Conclusion: Omega-3 fatty acids found to be effective in decreasing of uremic pruritus. So, it seems that Omega-3 fatty acids could be used as an efficient drug for treatment of pruritus in uremic patients. The present study showed that low-dose sertraline was effective for antihistamine-refractory uremic pruritus than omeg3 in renal palliative care patients.

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