Sertraline as an Additional Treatment for Cholestatic Pruritus in Children.

Objectives: Pruritus is a severe symptom accompanying chronic cholestasis. It can be debilitating and difficult to control. In children, first-line treatments are ursodeoxycholic acid and rifampicin. Refractory pruritus may require invasive therapies including liver transplantation. Clinical trials based on small samples of adult patients suggest that serotonin reuptake inhibitors can improve pruritus in cholestatic or uremic disease. We performed a prospective, multicenter study to assess efficiency and safety of the serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline in treating children with refractory cholestatic pruritus.

Methods: Twenty children experiencing refractory cholestatic pruritus related to Alagille syndrome or progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis were included from 4 centers between 2007 and 2014, and treated with sertraline at a starting dose of 1 mg · kg · day and thereafter individually adapted up to 4 mg · kg · day. Before and after 3 months with therapy, pruritus was assessed using a visual itching scale graded on 10 points, a skin scratch marks score and a sleeping impairment score.

Results: Sertraline was prescribed at a median daily dose of 2.2 mg · kg · day. After 3 months, pruritus improved in 14 out of 20 treated patients, and the median itching score decreased significantly from 8/10 (5-10) to 5/10 (2-10). Likewise, skin scratch marks and sleep quality improved in 9 of these 14 patients. Nonsevere adverse events were reported in 6 children, leading to treatment discontinuation in 3.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that sertraline may constitute a useful drug in the management of refractory cholestatic pruritus in children.