In an August edition of the British Medical journal, it was reported that there has been an increase in the uptake of temporary tattoos. [BMJ 2015;351:h4519]     Also, in one of the October issues of the British Medical Journal was a picture of ‘A pretty rash.’ This was a case … [Read more...] about The dangers of temporary tattoos

We met up with some good friends of ours recently who are frequent long-haul travellers. They had just renovated and extended their home and told us a story of how they had found, upon their return from a recent business trip away, that their youngest son was covered in a rash and they were going to … [Read more...] about This Christmas, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune condition which presents with well-demarcated areas of hair loss. It can present at any time of life but usually presents in the younger age groups, usually before the age of 30 years. The condition is sporadic or affected individuals will develop one or several … [Read more...] about New drugs in the treatment of alopecia areata

Towards the end of July, the British Medical Journal published an educational article on Body Dysmorphic disorder. [BMJ 2015; 350: h2278]   What is this? The article was written by Dr David Veale, a Consultant Psychiatrist in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy at the South London and … [Read more...] about Body Dysmorphic Disorder

At the time of writing this blog, the family has just returned from its first ever camping trip (outside of the back garden!). On one of the obligatory dog walks by a river near the campsite, we noticed we were surrounded by triffid-like cow parsley, towering over us to over two metres in height. My … [Read more...] about Seen the giant cow parsley?

Being the summer, many of us are thinking of, planning towards or heading imminently off on our holidays. Last week, a father of a longstanding paediatric patient of mine with difficult to manage, widespread, chronic eczema placed me with his conundrum.   Standard advice in eczema is the … [Read more...] about Fun in the sun with eczema

Towards the end of May of this year, scores of patients started turning up to clinic clutching pages torn out of newspapers reporting the advent of a novel drug to successfully treat … [Read more...] about A new drug to treat melanoma!

On April 9th 2015, the Daily Mail published an article stating that £13 million of NHS prescriptions were for suncreams, implying that patients were abusing the system by obtaining prescriptions for household items and that these prescriptions were an unnecessary drain on the … [Read more...] about Prescription sunscreens

At the time of writing this blog, we’re having the first lovely bright, clear and sunny days of Spring and it feels absolutely wonderful after all the long, dark days of winter.   Traditionally, this time of year heralds the beginning of busy days for dermatologists. This is because everyone … [Read more...] about “Do you do mole mapping?”

On February 23rd, the eagerly awaited results of the LEAP study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.   [Du Toit G, Roberts G, Sayre PH et al. Randomized Trial of Peanut Consumption in Infants at Risk for Peanut Allergy.   N Engl J Med 2015; 372:803-813.]   What’s the … [Read more...] about The findings of the LEAP study