Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Children Control of the Maternal Rejection Factor

SIXTEEN years ago, in concluding an excellent presentation on atopic eczema in childhood, Hill1stated: To talk about eczema is easy and always pleasant; to cure the patient is quite another matter, and in spite of allergens, reagins, skin tests, elimination diets, and so on, the actual practical treatment is not entirely satisfactory, whether by dermatologist, allergist or pediatrician, or by all combined. Most dermatologists today would agree that this still constitutes a reasonable assessment of the status of the therapeutic effectiveness of existing measures to deal with atopic dermatitis. About the time this opinion was being expressed, however, a few voices were being raised to introduce a new viewpoint on the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. Sack,2Stokes,3Blaisdell4and Becker5drew attention to associated neurogenic and psychogenic factors, to emotional states and to neurocirculatory instability in prurigo, neurogenous dermatitis and eczema. These were the