Clinical profile of dermatitis neglecta with special emphasis on psychiatric comorbidities: A case series of 22 patients from Eastern India

Dermatitis neglecta (DN), first described by Poskitt et al. in 1995, is a dermatosis resulting from insufficient frictional cleansing of the skin. Lesions result from self-neglect and may have several underlying etiologies, including psychiatric conditions. There is a dearth of any formal study or large case series on this subject. Moreover, the psychological aspects of DN mostly remain unexplored. We report here the clinical profile and psychiatric comorbidities of a group of patients with DN from eastern India. Sporadic cases of underlying psychological problems like cognitive deficit and executive dysfunction, schizophrenia, severe anxiety disorder, and depression have been reported in the existing literature. Associated psychiatric disorder was present in 72.7% of the patients of this case series that include several underlying psychiatric disorders like depression, schizophrenia, somatic symptom disorder, social anxiety disorder, intellectual disability, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and alcohol dependence. In this article we would like to emphasize that DN is frequently associated with psychiatric disorder and management of the underlying psychiatric condition with psychotropic medications; psychotherapy is of immense importance.