Iron Deficiency and Pruritus

To the Editor.—  I read with interest the letter by Valsecchi and Cainelli¹ in the August Archives, but I found their single reference startling.A similar article had appeared in JAMA² and prompted me to reply. I stated that work in Europe on this topic dated back to 1967, when Sneddon and Garretts³ described the relationship between itching and iron deficiency.Also, in 1972, Rook et al⁴ described this condition and, in 1974,I published a paper (Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians, London, February 1974) in which I described the relationship of iron deficiency to generalized pruritus in 87 patients.I agree with the authors' conclusions but find it strange that data on this problem do not appear in American textbooks.