Atopic Dermatitis in the Aged

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory, pruritic, and chronic, or chronically relapsing, skin disease occurring often in families with other atopic diseases. It occurs most frequently in infancy and childhood but also affects adults and elderly population (>65 years old). Over the last decades, the prevalence of AD increased substantially. Adult AD includes patients with a persistent AD since childhood and those with a late-onset AD. Usually the disease exists for years, compromising quality of life, sex life, and occupational choices. The extrinsic type of AD is more common in adults than in children. Contact allergens and aeroallergens seem to play an important role in exacerbating AD. The disease is more frequent in females during the third decade, although in elderly patients (>65 years old), a male predominance is reported. Clinical features of AD differ characteristically according to the age of patients. In adults and senile patients, the disease (AD) often presents with atypical clinical manifestations, which sometimes make the diagnosis very difficult. As we might be seeing more adults with AD in the future, there is a need for more studies in older patients, because until today a small number of manuscripts have been published on adult AD compared to the literature devoted to AD in children. In this chapter, the particular characteristics of AD in adult life such as epidemiology, quality of life, diagnostic criteria, clinical features, allergic triggers or irritating factors, pathogenesis, and treatment are discussed.