A study of role of psychological stress on physical disability in the patients with psoriasis at tertiary health care centre

 

Patil Reshma Tanaji¹, Harnalikar Manoj^2*

 

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

Email: drmanojh@gmail.com

 

Abstract              Background: The physical and psychosocial aspect of psoriasis interact and influence one another in reciprocal way to create an overall clinical picture. The disease is enormously variable in duration, periodicity of flares and extent. The afflicted often feel self-conscious, helpless, embarrassed, angry and frustrated about their disease. Aim and objectives: To study role of psychological stress on physical disability in the patients with psoriasis at tertiary health care centre. Methodology: 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. Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI) and Psoriasis life stress inventory (PLSI) Questionnaires were used as study tools. The data was collected and analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. 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. The mean PDI and PLSI were 15.98 (35.51%) and 18.04 (40.08%) respectively. Conclusions: Increasing stress due to psoriasis is the significant factor responsible for higher physical disability. The good support from family members, friends, and people at the working place other than the patient can take off or minimize the psychological stress of the patient which can definitely improve quality of life of the patient.

Key Words: Physical disability, stress.