Objective: Depression and anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in patients with psoriasis. Although the importance of psychological factors is known in psoriasis, the relationship between severity of disease and depression and anxiety is still undetermined. Psychiatric comorbidity negatively affects the quality of life in patients with psoriasis. In this study, we aimed to compare the depression, anxiety and quality of life levels of psoriasis vulgaris patients with those of healthy controls who are similar to them in terms of age, sex and education level and to determine the relationship between depression, anxiety and quality of life and the disease severity among psoriasis vulgaris patients.
Method: This study involved 69 patients with psoriasis who had never been diagnosed and treated with a psychiatric disorder before. Thirty-seven healthy subjects who were similar to the study group in terms of age, gender and education level have also been included in the study. To determine the clinical severity of psoriasis Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) was applied to the patient group in dermatology outpatient clinic. All participants were administered Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and Short Form-36 (SF-36) by a different researcher in psychiatry outpatient clinic.
Results: The mean HAM-D, HAM-A total and HAM-A mental scores of the patient group were significantly higher when compared to the scores of control group. The mean SF-36 physical functioning, social functioning, physical role difficulty, emotional role difficulty, mental health, energy, pain, and general health scores were significantly lower in the patient group than the control group. HAM-A total and HAM-A somatic scores were positively correlated with PASI scores in the patients.
Conclusion: High levels of depression and anxiety in psoriasis patients may be showing a need for psychiatric assessment in these patients. The relationship between the psoriasis severity and anxiety level may suggest an assessment especially focusing on anxiety in psoriasis patients.
Key words: psoriasis, depression, anxiety, quality of life
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