The cause and treatment of idiopathic pruritus ani.

Six common foods can cause the clinical entity called "idiopathic" pruritus ani. They are coffee, tea, cola, beer, chocolate, and tomatoes. Pruritus ani occurs in 24 to 48 hours when a patient consumers more than a threshold amount of one or more of these foods and disappears spontaneously in a few days provided the threshold is not exceeded again.