The Difficult Hair Loss Patient: Guide to Successful Management of Alopecia and Related Conditions

You could read every textbook available on hair growth and disorders, and still not be able to treat hair loss effectively. In every art, there are many techniques, but few principles. The only way to achieve success is to have a firm foundation of principles to build upon, and the right attitude about how to achieve your goals. This book offers a detailed guide that goes beyond the technical aspects of trichology and evidence based medicine, providing specialists and primary care physicians experienced in the basic management of hair loss with the additional know-how they need to master the ultimate challenge of difficult hair loss patients. First, the prerequisites for successful management of hair loss are reviewed – basically, making a diagnosis and understanding the patient and his or her problem. Then, guidelines on the management of difficult dermatologic conditions and of psychopathological disorders associated with hair loss are provided. Lastly, important aspects of follow-up are covered–specifically the problems of adverse effects, patient non-compliance, and their management–before concluding with exemplary case studies of successful treatment of alopecia and related conditions.

Ralph M. Trüeb is Professor of Dermatology. He received his MD and Swiss Board Certification for Dermatology and Venereology as well as for Allergology and Clinical Immunology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In 1994–1995 he spent a year at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with Rick Sontheimer and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Dallas with Bruce Beutler to complete his Fellowship in Immunodermatology. After 20 years of tenure at the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zurich, where he established and was head of the Hair Consultation Clinic, he established in 2010 his private Center for Dermatology and Hair Diseases in Zurich-Wallisellen. He is past President of the European Hair Research Society (2008–2011). His clinical research interests focus on hair loss, inflammatory phenomena, hair aging and anti-aging, and patient expectation management. He is currently author of 180 peer-reviewed scientific publications and author or editor of a number of textbooks on hair, including the Springer books Male Alopecia: Guide to Successful Management (2014), Female Alopecia (2013) Aging Hair (2010), and Hair Growth and Disorders (2008). Since 2013 the Center for Dermatology and Hair Diseases offers doctors-in-training and dermatologists international traineeships in trichology.