Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss what is psychodermatology, the place of this subspecialty in dermatology, the relevance of studying this matter in the context of medicine and psychology and the contribution of philosophy of mind to understand psychosomatics. We stress that, although the mind-skin connection has a long history and has been highlighted throughout the times, its importance in the clinical practice is not seldom poorly known and understood, with deep impact and deleterious effects on the patients. We conclude that the study of psychodermatology is relevant not only in the setting of dermatology, but also in the context of different medical and surgical specialties as well as in psychology, as psychodermatologic disease and illness is multifaceted and these patients may present a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and may look for and specially need a complementary management and treatment.
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Roque Ferreira, B., Jafferany, M., Patel, A. (2020). Introduction: Why to Study Psychodermatology and to Whom it May Concern. In: The Essentials of Psychodermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45582-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45582-8_1
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