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Depression and Psoriasis
While psoriasis is a known risk factor for depression, depression can also exacerbate or trigger psoriasis. This relationship between depression...
Drs. Singh, Narang, Dogra, and Handa are from Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. Dr. Singh is from the Department of Psychiatry; Drs. Narang, Dogra, and Handa are from the Departments of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprology. Dr. Verma is from the Department of Psychiatry, Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, Nalanda, Bihar, India. Dr. Gupta is from the Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Jaipur, India.
The authors report no conflict of interest.
This study was conducted at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, as a part of a project supported by an institute intramural grant. This intramural grant scheme is open to all faculty members of the institute, strict ethical standards are maintained, projects are invited and reviewed by an ethics review committee, and requisite funds are provided. This scheme aims to promote research and no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, is involved.
Correspondence: Tarun Narang, MD, Departments of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 16012 India (narangtarun@yahoo.co.in).
Results
One hundred four participants were included in this study. The sociodemographic, clinical, and diagnostic profiles, as well as the determinants of MINI diagnosis, are provided in Tables 1 through 4. The PASI and DLQI scores indicated that most participants had mild to moderate psoriasis severity.10 The prevalence of alcohol-related disorders was only found in the male subpopulation, which is consistent with the sociocultural context of North India. Psoriasis severity (ie, PASI score) was not found to be a determinant of psychiatric diagnoses in the study population. There was no statistical difference in measures of current clinical status and treatment modality when those with or without any psychiatric diagnoses were compared. When the variables of disease duration, treatment duration, and DLQI were entered into a binary logistic regression with positive status for a MINI diagnosis as a dependent variable indicating the presence of a psychiatric disorder, it was found that the DLQI score was a significant predictor (b=0.19; SE=0.47; χ2=17.92; P<.05). This finding was the same for regression analyses for males and females separately and also for DD as a dependent variable.
Mean DLQI and PASI scores were positively correlated with each other (Pearson r=0.23; P=.01). This relationship was maintained in males (Pearson r=0.24; P=.03) but not in females (Pearson r=0.14; P=.30). The correlations between DLQI and PASI scores and both disease duration and treatment duration were not significant. The Cohen κ values for the interrater reliability analyses done to assess the concordance of the PHQ and MINI diagnostic groups were modest (0.31-0.42), which was true even when MINI depressive disorders without dysthymia and PHQ depressive disorders were compared.
While psoriasis is a known risk factor for depression, depression can also exacerbate or trigger psoriasis. This relationship between depression...
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