Itchy Arms

[Nettie01]

Starting in August, I get extremelly itchy arms.  It is only on my arms, top side.  It is uncontrollable and so extreme I itch until I have broken skin.  It is actually more than just an itch.  It feels deep from within, like a prickly intense feeling inside my skin.  It usually subsides sometime in January or February.  This year I actually started itching end of June/July.  This is going to be a long season if itching for me.  I am miserable.  Ice seems to help, probably numbing it.  I take Neurotin 100mg during the day as needed for itch, which has been a lot lately.  At night I take a Neurotin 300mg.   This has been getting me throught the night most of the time.  I just hate being tired all of the time.  This is my 8th year with this problem.  I have been to dermatologists, neuologists, general practitioners, and allergists.  Nobody seems to be able to help me.  Like I said, Neurotin helps, but I can't function on it and I have had to take a lot of it lately.

Help, please!

[sue12203]

This is not a histimine response situation, and anti-histimines do no good whatsoever.  I have had this for over 10 years, comes in September and leaves around December.  The only thing that works for me is 50 mg elavil and 600 mg neurontin in the evening.  The rational:  Although both of these drugs were not intended to relieve pain syndromes, this 'side-effect' was found accidentally and both drugs are now being used for this purpose.  The term brachioradial pruritis has been coined in reference to whatever it is that is causing this itching, though nobody seems to know what that might be.  Years ago I was sent from 1 doctor to the next looking for a diagnosis and treatment.  These included the dermatologist, neurologist, internist and gynecologist.  Each ruled out their own territory as being responsible.  However, a neurologist friend of mine suggested that the itching was along the pain spectrum and told me to try elavil and neurontin.  At the time, both were not widely used for pain although now they are being employed frequently for this purpose.  I still have no useful information, no specific treatment, and only a stop-gap medication solution.  I still wake myself up scratching, and then get an ice pack to numb the place on my arms.  This is an incredibly frustrating problem, and the lack of interest from physicians is atocious, in my opinion.

[FoxGlen]

This is the first year that I have experienced the symptoms that have been discussed here and nothings that I have tried works to relieve the itching either.  I am a landscaper plus I do all the grounds keeping on our 16-acre hardwood forest property in the Blue Ridge Mountains region of Virginia.  Symptoms began in mid-September and occur only on my right upper arm from wrist to elbow.  This is my dominant arm.  Are any non-outdoor types contracting this problem?  Do men experience this problem?  It appears as though I would be wasting my time running around to doctors looking for a cure.

[medlearn]

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