Dermatosis

The broad, umbrella term for skin disease, defect or lesion is dermatosis (plural — dermatoses). This covers all skin diseases running the spectrum from deadly skin cancer, all the way to down to a simple nail fungus. The term shouldn’t be confused with dermatitis, which refers to inflammation of the skin — a symptom of many dermatoses. The two terms are related but not identical.

When a particular dermatosis is caused by psychological or non-environmental factors — it is called Neurodermatosis. The obvious reference is to the neurotic — as opposed to an environmental — origin of the disease.