{"id":1254,"date":"2023-04-05T15:10:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T19:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2023-04-05T15:10:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T19:10:47","slug":"difelikefalin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1254","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Difelikefalin<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The New England Journal of<\/em> <em>Medicine<\/em> recently published a research article on a drug trial of difelikefalin (who comes up with these names?) to treat Notalgia paresthetica.&nbsp; Notalgia paresthetica is an allergic mimic; it is actually a form of localized neuropathy.&nbsp; It is sometimes called the itch that rashes.&nbsp; It is characterized by chronic recurrent localized itching (usually unilateral) in the interscapular paravertebral area.&nbsp; (i.e., the shoulder blade).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is felt to be due to dysfunction of the cutaneous branches of thoracic spinal nerves.&nbsp; Because the itch is so intense it leads to excessive scratching which in turn leads to the skin both thickening and darkening.&nbsp; It is resistant to therapies such as antihistamines and topical anti-itch creams and topical steroid creams.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Difelikefalin is a selective kappa opioid receptor agonist.&nbsp; It has been known for many years that the sense of itch is carried in our sensory pain fibers.&nbsp; Think back to a skin injury or cut that was painful at the onset but itched as it was healing.&nbsp; Opioids of all forms have been used to treat pain.&nbsp; The selective kappa receptor on pain fibers has been shown to suppress itch when it is stimulated.&nbsp; Hence the development of Difelikefalin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The drug study had a small enrollment (126 people) but the 8-week trial showed excellent results.&nbsp; The main side effects were nausea and constipation.&nbsp; A larger study is underway to try and obtain FDA approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a research article on a drug trial of difelikefalin (who comes up with these names?) to treat Notalgia paresthetica.&nbsp; Notalgia paresthetica is an allergic mimic; it is actually a form of localized neuropathy.&nbsp; It is sometimes called the itch that rashes.&nbsp; It is characterized by chronic recurrent localized itching (usually unilateral) in the interscapular paravertebral area.&nbsp; (i.e., the shoulder blade).&nbsp; It is felt to be due to dysfunction of the cutaneous branches&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1254\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[607],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-difelikefalin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}