"Seemingly insignificant impacts on a patient can really change the trajectory of their life so it's very important to treat [atopic dermatitis] early."

At the Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) 2025 meeting in Nashville this month, Mona Shahriari, MD, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine, gave a presentation titled, "The Psychosocial Impact of Atopic Dermatitis" that focused on the cumulative life course impairment associated with the disease. During an interview at the meeting, Patient Care^© asked Shahriari what she hoped might be different in understanding of the emotional burden of AD if she made the same presentation at RAD 2026.

"One moment during the session really struck me. I asked the audience how many were familiar with the term cumulative life course impairment. Only 3 or 4 hands went up. That was eye-opening," she said. Her hope for what might be different about this talk next year reflects what she hopes dermatologists at this year's meeting took home with them:

When a patient with AD walks into your clinic, it might feel like just another rash on the schedule. But for them, it could be the reason they don’t leave the house. It could be the reason they don’t fall in love. It could be the reason they stop dreaming. Taking the time to ask the right questions, to understand the full burden of disease, and to start effective treatment—those things can genuinely transform lives.

Shahriari said she hopes that the research in the area of cumulative life course impairment in AD will have progressed and awareness increased so that when she asks the same question next year, there will be just 3 or 4 hands that do not go up.

Mona Shahriari, MD is an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT and co-founder of Central Connecticut Dermatology in Cromwell, CT.

For more RAD 2025 meeting coverage, please click here.