DERMATOPHILE
What’s missing from this picture? An approach to alopecia in children
Correspondence to:
Dr P A Lio, Children’s Hospital Boston, Fegan 6 Dermatology, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; peter.lio@childrens.harvard.edu
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam (Even a single hair casts a shadow)Publilius Syrus
Hair loss carries with it a tremendous emotional and psychological burden for the patient.1 It can also be very daunting both diagnostically and therapeutically for the clinician. With entities ranging from Shokeir syndrome to citrullinaemia, the differential diagnosis of alopecia overwhelms at first blush. Fortunately, when we focus on children, especially otherwise healthy children with previously normal hair, the considerable number of possibilities falls precipitously and we are left with a not-so-daunting few.
In this review, we will focus on four of the most common causes of alopecia in children: telogen effluvium, trichotillomania, tinea capitis and alopecia areata.2 Although perhaps seemingly straightforward, there are a number of pearls and perils in sorting out these entities and selecting treatment that I hope to explore.
INTRODUCTION
Telogen effluvium refers to an abnormality of the normal hair
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
eLetters:
Read all eLetters
- alopecia can also be caused by chemical hair relaxants
- oscar,m jolobe
- Education and Practice Online, 10 Dec 2007 [Full text]
- Alopecia? Think to celiac disease
- Valentina Kiren, et al.
- Education and Practice Online, 13 Dec 2007 [Full text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Read responses to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Dermatology
-
Child and adolescent psychiatry (paedatrics)
-
Personality disorders
-
Child health
-
Metabolic disorders
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
