Medico-Legal Implications in the Management of Psychocutaneous Diseases

From the medico-legal standpoint, diagnosing and managing psychocutaneous diseases might be challenging. The pathologic interaction of mind and skin may be classified as follows: (a) psychophysiological disorders (i.e., the skin disease is not caused by psychiatric disorders, but it may be triggered by emotional stress), (b) psychiatric disorders with dermatological symptoms, (c) dermatological disorders with psychiatric symptoms [1, 2]. Hence, patients with psychocutaneous conditions may show skin lesions arising from the dermatological disease, or skin artifacts due to pathomimesis. Some patients may cause self-skin lesions with illicit intent (malingering) or be subjected to skin injuries due to abuse or other violent crime.