While considerable attention has been paid to the emotional factors in patients with alopecia areata by dermatologists,* there have been few systematic studies of these patients by psychiatrists. The most extensive study so far reported is that of Irwin † in England on 55 patients. He found that 63% of these patients were psychoneurotic, another 23% were classified as having traumatic neurosis and 14% were free of mental illness. Thus, a total of 86% of the patients were considered by him to be in need of psychiatric help. The present study was made in an attempt to determine the frequency and severity of mental illness in patients who come to the dermatologist for treatment of alopecia areata.
SELECTION OF PATIENTS
Forty-four patients with typical alopecia areata of the scalp were studied. Thirty-two were from the Dermatologic Clinic of the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, and the Skin and