The many informations and commentaries in this book, starting from the clinical morphology via pathophysiology, diagnostics, therapy, and prevention, make clear that atopic dermatitis is a very complex illness which cannot be treated well in a quick physician-patient contact and by writing a prescription for a cream or an injection.

In spite of clear-cut psychosomatic interactions with deteriorations of skin lesions in specific stress situations, it has to be stated that atopic dermatitis is no “psychiatric” disease, but a skin disease which can be modulated by psychological influences—negatively and positively! The development of atopic eczema is never the product of “guilt”—neither of the patient nor of the mother or father—rather it is a complex interplay of genetic predisposition and environmentally induced factors.