Eczema or atopic dermatitis

please can any one explain to me the difference between these two skin conditions or are they the same thing?.also if you can develop eczema at any time in your life? thank you spider

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Atopic dermatitis is a common chronic skin disease that is also called atopic eczema."" - So yeah, they're the same itchy joy!

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I've got both of these - the main difference is that the eczema can just come up for no apparent reason, whereas the atopic dermatitis (often called 'contact dermatitis') happens when your skin is in contact with something that causes the skin problem.

Classic examples are: wearing jewellery which contains cheap metals like zinc and nickel (belt buckes and the studs in pairs of jeans can also do this), wearing perfume, cleaning products, and elastic or rubbery bits in your clothes (you get some of these in underwired bras, I've noticed!)

More info here: eczema.org/

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Atopic dermatitis = atopic eczema = eczema.

You only have ""atopic"" eczema/dermatitis if you are atopic, i.e. you have a hereditary tendency to eczema, asthma, hayfever and rhinitis.

Anyone in the general population can develop contact dermatitis, which is a chemical irritation of the skin (different from atopic dermatitis), but only atopic individuals can have atopic eczema/dermatitis. The end result is the same - it looks the same and is just as itchy, but contact dermatitis tends to occur in specific patterns, such as where your nickel belt buckle has been in contact with your tummy, or where the washing-up liquid comes into contact with your hands.

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You can have both. I do. Both severe atopic eczema and contact dermatitis. Both kept under wraps – raps even - and both drive me mad, almost as much as asthma probs – but not quite - by previously mentioned boot camp pharmacological strategies and by complimentary ‘touchy feely’ means.

The contact dermatitis happens because of delayed hypersensitivity. Yet again an inappropriate or excessive immune response to what the body – any part- mucosal membranes, skin, lungs, gut, you name it – perceives as a threat whether real or ‘imagined’ by our enthusiastic immune systems. More precisely in the case of delayed hypersensitivity, cell –mediated reactions. Examples of ‘allergans’ include poison ivy and penicillin not to mention some foods.

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I always thought dermatitis was a severe form of eczema, I had dermatitis in my teens and needed to wear gloves for 3 weeks, whereas I still get eczema now but nowhere near as severe, I always thought thats why my son has asthma cos they're related in some way

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Dermatitis and eczema are interchangeable - they both names for exactly the same thing! ""Eczema"" is something of a less ""scientific"" term - it is derived from the Greek word meaning ""to boil over"" - very descriptive, don't you think? ""Dermatitis"" means, more simply, inflammations (""-itis"") of the dermis - the upper layers of the skin.

Neither implies greater severity than the other - but most people will know the skin condition as ""eczema"" rather than dermatitis.

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I believe atopy is described as a measurable immunological characteristic which must ALSO present symptoms like asthma, dermatitis or rhinitis upon subsequent exposure to a substance.

Accordingly to some of the learned journals I have read, dermatitis is normal described as immunological dermatitis or non-immunological dermatitis. They both causes exactly the same symptoms, however, the former will demonstrate a measurable IgE or IgG response to a substance, where as the latter, will not. Therefore only immunological dermatitis can be described as atopic dermatitis.

I know this must sound all very academic, but it important to realise that a person can suffer asthma, dermatitis or other ""allergic"" conditions even when no measurable IgE or IgG has been recorded.

Take hair,

Derek