Dermatitis artefacta

Dermatitis artefacta is a psychocutaneous illness that afects especially women, adolescents and patients with an underlying psychiatric illness or personality disorder (especially borderline), as well as patients with external stress. Patients infict injuries in various ways, most often mechanically. The clinical signs are characteristic and are usually combined with psychological disorders. In the diferential diagnosis organic causes of dermatitis must be ruled out. The therapy should be carried out by a psychodermatological team to treat both the skin lesions and the patient’s psyche. We report on a patient with dermatitis artefacta who produced skin lesions using dye-stuf because of psychological stress.