Background: Psychosocial stress and stressful events in life have been reported to be closely related to the onset and acute exacerbation of some dermatologic disorders, such as alopecia areata, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis and atopic dermatitis. However, the nature of the association between stress and dermatologic disorders remains unclear. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the relation of stress and the onset and exacerbation of dermatologic disorders. Furthermore we studied whether the coping strategies to stress are related to dermatologic disorders. Method: We examined 30 patients with alopecia areata, 30 patients with androgenetic alopecia who visited Dept. of Dermatology, Chung-Ang University Hospital and a control group of 30 who visited our clinic at the same time for tinea pedis and onychomycosis, which are supposed not to be related to stress. For the evaluation of stress we used questionares of 'Scale of Life Events' and 'Multidimensional Coping Scale'. (continue...) (Korean J Dermatol 1999;37(6): 733-738)