A study of impact of psoriasis on patients psycho-social activities

 

Harnalikar Manoj¹, Patil Reshma Tanaji^2*

 

¹Associate Professor, ²Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology Dr.shankar Rao Chavan Government Medical College Nanded, Maharashtra, INDIA.

Email: drmanojh@gmail.com

 

Abstract              Background: Psoriasis ravages the quality of life (QOL) of afflicted individuals. The disease is enormously variable in duration, periodicity of flares and extent. The physical and psychosocial aspect of psoriasis interact and influence one another in reciprocal way to create an overall clinical picture. The afflicted often feel self-conscious, helpless, embarrassed, angry and frustrated about their disease. Aim and objectives: To study the impact of psoriasis on patient’s psycho-social activities Material and Methods: It’s a cross sectional, observational study consisting of 50 cases having chronic plaque psoriasis aged between 18-60 years of both sexes and duration of disease of at least 3 months included in the study. Study period is of 2 years from November 2010 to October 2012 and data collected from two hospitals attached to a tertiary health care centre. Predesigned and pretested questionnaire which were asked verbally was used for evaluation of Psoriasis Disability Index. Results: There were 41 male and 9 female patients. Mean age of onset of psoriasis was 33.6 years. Mean duration of disease was 7.3 years. We observed significant correlation of the PASI score with all subdivisions of PDI. Among the psycho-social measures investigated, psoriasis sufferers were found most likely to feel disturbed / depressed by extensive shedding of skin. Conclusions: Effective counselling of the patients, family members, friends, and people at the working place can be very effective for patients to come forward for early treatment which can contribute to a good control of the disease.

Key Words: Psoriasis, Psycho-social.