RESEARCH ARTICLE
Psychodermatology: Past, Present and Future
Carmen Rodriguez-Cerdeira*, 1, Jose Telmo Pera-Grasa2, A. Molares3, Rafael Isa-Isa4, Roberto Arenas-Guzman5
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 21
Last Page: 27
Publisher ID: TODJ-5-21
DOI: 10.2174/1874372201105010021
Article History:
Received Date: 20/07/2011Revision Received Date: 16/09/2011
Acceptance Date: 19/09/2011
Electronic publication date: 26/10/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
A relationship between psychological factors and skin diseases has long been hypothesized. Psychodermatology addresses the interaction between the mind and the skin. Today, we know that it is essential to consider both biopsychosocial approaches and path physiological approaches to treatment, involving general practitioners, psychiatrists, dermatologists and psychologists. However, Psychodermatology is a relatively new discipline, and the body of literature addressing it is still scarce.
To obtain data, we consulted the archives of dermatological societies in Europe and America from the year of their founding until 2010. We also consulted other psychiatric and psychological societies and received responses from most of them.
Among the different stages in the historical evolution of Psychodermatology (the early, anecdotal phase; the methodological phase and the contemporary phase), it was only in the most recent phase that the European Society of Dermatology and Psychiatry was established. Other working groups and societies have emerged in several European countries: The German Working Group on Psychodermatology, French Society for Dermatology and Psychosomatics, Italian Society of Psychosomatic Dermatology, the Dutch Society of Psychosomatic Dermatology, the Spanish Society of Dermatology and Psychiatry etc.
More recently, a Psychodermatology two groups Psychodermatology were established first one within the Ibero Latin American College of Dermatology (CILAD) and the other one the Japanese Society of Psychodermatology (JSPD).
Summarize, this review details the historical evolution of the relationship between the skin and the mind. It also reveals the emergence of Psychodermatology as a discipline in its own right and describes the societies that have emerged worldwide as a result of collaboration between dermatologists and psychiatrists.
