Urticaria--current concepts

Dermatopsychosomatics: classification, physiology, and therapeutic approaches

Psychosomatic dermatology is practiced in some manner by every dermatologist. In spite of this, there has been a virtual void in the literature from the middle 1950s until the present time. The relationship to physiologic phenomena, as well as a classification of psychosomatic dermatology, is reviewed. Dermatologic patients are divided into three groups: the primary group in which the emotional disorder is the primary disease and the cutaneous disorder merely part of its expression; the secondary group in which the basic cause is organic but does not affect the person emotionally in various degrees; and the collaborative group in which the organic causes and emotional disorders combine in different degrees to cause the skin disorder. This paper discusses anxiety and depression along with methods of dermatologic psychosomatic therapy consisting of antianxiety drugs, especially the benzodiazepines, antidepressants, hypnosis, behavior therapy, and the doctor/patient rapport. We conclude that one of the objectives for every dermatologist is to treat the entire patient-the psyche along with the soma.

Management of chronic idiopathic urticaria by the identification and exclusion of dietary factors

The role played by dietary chemical factors in the pathogenesis of chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) was assessed in seventy-six patients by challenge Stable remission was first established by using an empirically established 'exclusion diet'. A diet modified to exclude those chemicals giving a positive response to challlenge was demonstrated to be of therapeutic value for time periods of up to 18 months. Re-testing twelve patients at 12 months indicated that most patients positive to salicylate or benzoate challenge retained this pattern of reactivity.