Factitial dermatitis

Abstract

Self-inflicted skin lesions (SISL) are far from being rare in everyday practice, although they remain 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 behavior that leads to self-mutilations in such cases is often kept secret by the patient unless a trustful doctor-patient 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, psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants, neuroleptics, and anxiolytics are used as adjunctive therapy.