Chronic hives is a serious problem that affects a huge number of people all around the world. But there may be some good news as a new study has shown that an asthma drug called omalizumab could be able to help treat the debilitating symptoms of the condition. Chronic hives is also known as chronic idiopathic urticaria, or chronic spontaneous urticaria.
The clinical trial study of 323 patients looked at and analysed three different doses of the drug. It was found that the highest dose, injected once a month for three months, showed the most promise for the improvement in the patients’ symptoms. The subjects of the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, were recruited from around the world, from 55 different institutions.
It is known that chronic idiopathic urticaria hives affect approximately 3 million people in the United States of America alone. Interestingly, twice as many women as men get the condition. There are a wide range of symptoms and people with chronic hives might develop swelling of their eyes, hands, face, lips and throat. This can cause trouble with breathing.
During flare-ups, the disease can be severe enough that patients struggle to feel well enough to even leave their homes. This can cause the secondary problem that they feel socially isolated and may result in lost time from work.
Current treatment for the condition includes using antihistamines, steroids and immunosuppressive drugs. However these do not always work and this can leave a gap in how to help these patients. All of the patients in the study had suffered with chronic hives for over six months where antihistamines had not helped after one week of treatment.
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