Psychiatric comorbidities occur with many dermatologic conditions, and as one might expect are more common in those with more severe skin disease. This very novel study looked at psychiatric diagnoses in atopics compared to patients with several other closely related skin diseases, rather than using unaffected individuals as a comparator group. Unsurprisingly, depression occurred about equally in all groups and incidence increased with severity of skin disease. Of much more interest is that patients with AD were more likely to have ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and especially conduct disorder. This study definitely reinforces the widely-held clinical impression that AD patients are more prone to developing these psychiatric comorbidities than many of the other patients seen with common dermatoses. What we still don't know, however, is if there is an intrinsic cause of these psychiatric symptoms or if the itching and discomfort suffered by the atopic person leads to these symptoms. — Joseph Fowler, Jr., MD, Clinical Professor of Dermatology, University of Louisville, KY