Quality of life, stress and depression in young adult with psoriasis – A cross sectional study 

• Author Details:   
• Balaguru Natarajan
• Sarin Abdulsalam
• Anjugam Alagappan
• Asokan Neelakandhan
• Ajith Kidangazhiathmana

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Background: Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory, immune-mediated cutaneous condition. Quality of life is largely affected in patients with psoriasis because of its visibility, cosmetic disfigurement, and social stigma, especially in young adults. There are several studies on the inter-relationship of psoriasis, quality of life, stress, and depression, but only a few of these are in the younger population. This study attempted to bridge this gap in knowledge.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted to assess the relationship between quality of life using Dermatology life quality index (DLQI), level of stress using psoriasis life stress inventory (PLSI) and depression using Primary care Screening Questionnaire For Depression (PSQ4D) among patients with psoriasis for a duration of at least three months in the age group of 18-35 years.

Results: Seventy patients were included in the study. Forty-five (64.3%) reported having stress. Forty-seven (67.1%) patients had moderate to severe reduction in quality of life. Thirty-two patients (45.7%) had a PSQ4D score of 2 or more indicating depression. Depression had a positive correlation with the severity of psoriasis (r = 0.025). There was a significant association between moderate to severe reduction in quality of life with systemic co-morbidities (p= 0.046) and stress (p=0.002, r = 0.232).

Conclusion: In this study, we found that about 50% of young patients with psoriasis irrespective of gender had a poor quality of life, associated stress, and depression. Treatment of psoriasis entail providing psychosocial support to the patients, besides drugs.