Sometimes despair over a skin disease that fails to yield to treatment can lead to suicide. We have seen that tragedy twice – once in a young man with hair loss and the other in a boy with acne. And it almost happened with this patient. For five long years, a twenty-seven-year-old woman had suffered an extremely severe itch associated with small water blisters on her arms, legs and trunk. They came in groups in arciform configuration. Many of the soft tops had been scratched off, leaving areas of redness, crusting, and scars where she had dug the skin away to relieve her itch. The skin was both hyperpigmented and depigmented.

She stated that it all began a week after the birth of her second child. She was told it was due to sunlight sensitivity, and, indeed, it slowly faded as she dutifully avoided the sun. Two years later it recurred explosively after the birth of her third child and then had remained unchecked for the past three years. She has wandered from doctor to doctor, who have wandered from diagnosis to diagnosis, and from treatment to treatment. She has had numerous biopsies and as many diagnoses. Steroids, antibiotics, antihistaminics, and sedatives were all of no avail. She was told it was due to nerves, that it was due to an allergy to gluten in wheat, and that it was a virus infection. AIDS had not made its entrance or it, too, would have been considered.