Stress and psychoneuroimmunologic factors in dermatology.

There is clinical and experimental evidence that the brain can start, influence, and stop biologic skin events. Studies suggest that the skin, as a relevant part of the "diffuse brain," can modify the quality of perceptions and feelings. The immune and the endocrine systems seem to represent the protagonists of the modulation of those events and, in this context, psychosocial stressors and interventions can lead to global health changes of great interest for dermatologists.