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The Art and the Calling
March 2004

Teaching Psychocutaneous Medicine: Time for a Reappraisal

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Dermatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif. The author has no relevant financial interest in this article.

 

DAVID J.ELPERNMD

Arch Dermatol. 2004;140(3):282-284. doi:10.1001/archderm.140.3.282

. . . the other brother . . . has to change his shirt four times a day, they say. Skin breeds lice or vermin.1

Psychocutaneous medicine deals with a group of troublesome diseases, but it is also an inclusive approach that sees each patient in a biopsychosocialmatrix. Despite the acknowledged importance of this subject, there is no organized approach to teaching it. Lectures and textbooks are helpful, but physicianslearn best by clinical experience. A liaison clinic established in each training program, in which the psychologist or psychiatrist is fully integrated intothe dermatology department, would be an important step forward.

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