Dermatology: specific issues
Teaching people to use topical treatments (fingertip units, quantities, steroid phobia, vehicles, fire risk), measuring and responding to the psychosocial burden of skin disease, and skin health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori people.
Tier 2Topic overview
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Most topical treatment failures are under-use: too little, too briefly, or stopped for fear of steroid side effects. Prescribe an amount and teach the patient how to apply it.
- Skin disease has a psychosocial cost out of proportion to its medical severity. Measure it (DLQI) and screen for depression, particularly in acne, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote communities carry some of the world's highest rates of impetigo and scabies, with downstream kidney and heart disease. Māori and Pacific children in New Zealand are admitted with skin infection far more often than other children.
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Sources
- Therapeutic Guidelines: Dermatology (topical therapy principles, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis)AU/NZTherapeutic Guidelines Limited (eTG complete), Version 5, 2022 (no newer edition found, November 2026)
- National Healthy Skin Guideline: for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of skin infections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities in Australia (2nd edition)AU/NZAustralian Healthy Skin Consortium (The Kids Research Institute Australia), 2nd edition, October 2023
- Bowen AC et al. The global epidemiology of impetigo: a systematic review of the population prevalence of impetigo and pyoderma. PLoS One 2015;10:e0136789AU/NZPLoS One, 2015
- Finlay AY, Khan GK. Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI): a simple practical measure for routine clinical use. Clin Exp Dermatol 1994;19:210-6Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, 1994; score bands from Hongbo Y et al. J Invest Dermatol 2005;125:659-64
- Isotretinoin: TGA safety update on psychiatric and sexual adverse effectsAU/NZTherapeutic Goods Administration, Medicines Safety Update, 7 April 2025
- Aubert-Wastiaux H et al. Topical corticosteroid phobia in atopic dermatitis: a study of its nature, origins and frequency. Br J Dermatol 2011;165:808-14British Journal of Dermatology, 2011
- Emollients: new information about risk of severe and fatal burns with paraffin-containing and paraffin-free emollientsMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (UK), 2018, updated 2020
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Personal emails, About story and Australian-style copy