After practicing dermatology for more than 15 years, I’ve learned many things from my patients, especially how important communication is. Sometimes a patient will present us with something that we think is not significant, but they are self conscious about and it makes them anxious or avoid social situations.

As health care providers, we need to get a thorough history on why the patient is here and what motivates them to be here. It’s not necessary to spend an entire office visit doing a psychological evaluation, but it needs to be part of the patient history.