Management of sleep disturbance associated with atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common childhood skin disease that also affects adults. Sleep problems are frequently associated with AD and negatively affect both patients and their families. Although this problem is well recognized, there are currently limited studies of patients with AD to guide clinical management of sleep disturbances. This targeted review will inform clinicians of the potential therapeutic agents available to manage sleep disturbances and will review literature relevant to improving the sleep of children and adults with AD. On the basis of our clinical experience and the limited data available, we provide a suggested algorithm for clinicians treating sleep problems associated with AD, but clearly more studies are needed to both further characterize the sleep of patients with AD and to test the efficacy and effectiveness of candidate agents in clinical trials.