Recent Advances in the Seborrheic Dermatitis

Seborrheic dermatitis is characterized by the appearance of red, flacking, greasy lesions in regions rich in sebaceous glands. There are various opinions about the relation between seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff. Considering all available data, we consider seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff to be differing severity manifestations of similar origin. The known etiologies of seborrheic dermatitis are the abnormality of lipid and hormnes, Malassezia species, immune response. We recently focus on the relation between seborrheic dermatitis and HIV positive and AIDS patients, seborrheic dermatitis and neurological disease. The treatments of seborrheic dermatitis include topical treatments, oral treatments. There are non-specific agents, antifungal medication, corticosteroids in the topical treatments. Narrow band UVB and oral medications are known as the prophylaxis of seborrheic dermatitis but we need further study. In traditional korean medicine, the literature studies and case reports have been published. But we don't know what herbal medicine has antifungal effect against Malassezia species. So we should discriminate herbal medicines which have antifungal effect against Malassezia specieses. Then we could treat seborreic dermatitis by traditional korean medicine effectively.