A case of refractory chronic urticaria with improvement and reduction of serum IgE level by management of her strong aggression

We conducted a psychosomatic approach to a patient with refractory chronic urticaria (62-year-old female), and obtained effective results. Although this patient had received various treatments at several hospitals, she had experienced strong drug side effects and therapy was thus not indicated. Her itch was so severe that she rubbed the skin until it bled. Consequently, the treatment was difficult. In a psychological interview conducted after she was discharged from hospital, her background was made clear in that as she had chronic mental tension to ward living due to her developmental history and also had strong feeling of mistrust with aggressiveness in medical care due to her daughter's death. When she received appropriate psychological treatment for her negative emotion, drug therapy became possible and her symptoms were relieved with reduction of serum IgE level.