Abstract              Background: According to a recent international consortium, psoriasis affects upto 2% of the world's population, approximately 125 million people. Prevalence of depression in patients with psoriasis ranges between 10% and 58%. The physical and psychosocial aspect of psoriasis interact and influence one another in reciprocal way to create an overall clinical picture. Aim and Objectives: To study clinical severity and its correlation with physical and psychological disability and stress incurred in the psoriasis patients. 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. Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI) and Psoriasis life stress inventory (PLSI) Questionnaires were used as study tools. The extent of clinical severity of the disease was assessed by the psoriasis area severity index (PASI). 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. In the present study, PASI, PDI, PLSI were significantly correlated. Conclusions: Increasingstress 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: Psychological disability, stress.