clinical efficacy of topical avena sativa versus betamethasone in chronic pruritus due to sulfur mustard exposure

Background: avena sativa, a wellknown herbal medicine; has been used in various skin diseases such as eczema, burn and pruritus.objective: the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of this herbal medicine for treatment of chronic pruritus in sulfur mustard (sm) exposed patients.methods: veterans who referred to baghiatallah dermatologic clinic for itching problems were examined by a dermatologist and randomly assigned in three different groups. group a received ointment derived from avena sativa plant, group b, placebo and group c, betamethasone 0.1% cream twice a day for 4 weeks. twenty five patients were included in each group. a visual analogue scale were used for assessment of severity of pruritus and 2 questionnaire for quality of life and quality of sleep were filled for each patient. results: pruritus severity after the study by vas method was significantly decreased in all the groups, but betamethasone group showed the largest decrease (-2.4, p<0.001). the average quality of life based on dlqi criteria and quality of sleep based on psqi after the treatment showed the most significant difference in betamethasone group (3.52, p<0.001 and 0.96, p=0.001 respectively). although avena sativa showed significant effect on these criteria but it was only superior to placebo and not as effective as betamethasone.conclusion: the result demonstrated that avena sativa ointment reduced chronic pruritus, increased quality of life and quality of sleep in patients exposed to sm but betamethasone was superior in all aspects.