Chronic urticaria accounts for up to 75% of patients with urticaria attending dermatology clinics and can persist for many years. Chronic urticaria often causes significant quality of life issues due to pruritus and urticarial lesions resistant to treatment. Patients attending urticaria clinics have a similar impairment of quality of life as those with eczema or those with coronary disease awaiting by pass surgery. A good response to standard treatment with oral H1 receptor antagonists occurs in under 50%. Immunomodulatory or immunosuppression therapy might therefore required in patients with severe refractory chronic urticaria. But these treatments have too many adverse effects and difficulties in their using. In two current reports, three cases of severe chronic urticaria, unresponsive to conventional therapy, with a successful response to antidepressant mirtazapine were presented. Herein we present three cases responding oral mirtazapine, resistant combination therapies including antihistaminics, leucotrien antagonists and systemic corticosteroids. (Turkderm 2008; 42: 31-3)
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