Abstract
Self-inflicted skin lesions (SISL) are far from being rare in the everyday practice although remaining underreported. As a part of SISL, factitious skin disorder, also known as factitial dermatitis, refers to artificial or faked, self-provoked or alleged skin lesions, without clear external incentives.
The behaviour that leads to self-mutilations in such cases is often kept secret by the patient unless a trustful patient-doctor relationship is built. This is a major point in the management of factitious skin disorder. Together with the dermatological treatment, a number of psychological therapy techniques have been applied in the treatment of the disease. As factitial dermatitis is often accompanied by psychiatric comorbidity, psycho-active drugs such as antidepressants, neuroleptics, and anxiolytics are used as adjunctive therapy.
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Abbreviations
- FD:
-
Factitial dermatitis
- SISL:
-
Self-inflicted skin lesions
- SSRIs:
-
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
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Darlenski, R., Tsankov, N. (2023). Factitial Dermatitis. In: Katsambas, A.D., Lotti, T.M., Dessinioti, C., D'Erme, A.M. (eds) European Handbook of Dermatological Treatments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15130-9_31
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