Not just a childhood rash: treating atopic dermatitis in older people

I went to school with a boy who had atopic dermatitis. All year round he wore long-sleeved shirts, sometimes even soft cotton gloves, and always he would be scratching. His life seemed miserable with that rash; it certainly dominated his life. Many times he would be off sick due to it. Many times I would look at his dry and cracked hands and not envy him and his poor skin.

Forty years ago, when I was at school, atopic dermatitis was considered a childhood condition, and one that the child would often ‘grow out of’, meaning that the condition would ease and disappear around puberty. Since the 1980s it has been recognised that this is not always so, and that atopic dermatitis also affects adults and older people—it can even appear for the first time in older people.¹ It affects around 20% of the world's population.²