Association between psychiatric morbidity, coping, and quality of life in psoriasis: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Psychological factors are key determinants of outcomes in psoriasis. Little is known about burden of psychological morbidity, coping styles of patients with psoriasis, and relationship between coping styles, psychiatric morbidity, and quality of life (QoL) in this group. Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative study was carried out on cases with psoriasis and apparently healthy age- and gender-matched controls (n = 72 each). Both groups were compared on depression, anxiety, QoL, and coping preferences using standard measures. Multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis was used to assess predictors of depression and anxiety in psoriasis. Results: Cases with psoriasis had less schooling (P < 0.001) and belonged to lower socioeconomic class (P = 0.005). They also preferentially used emotion-focused coping strategies (P = 0.007) compared to controls and scored higher on depression and anxiety and had poorer QoL across all domains (P < 0.001 for all comparisons). In MLR analysis, female gender (B = 3.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22–4.86, P = 0.001), lower QoL (B = −0.06, 95% CI = −0.12–−0.01, P = 0.033), and higher anxiety (B = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.45–0.91, P < 0.001) were the predictors of depression while higher depression (B = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.39–0.76, P < 0.001) predicted anxiety in psoriasis. Conclusion: Significantly, higher psychiatric morbidity, poorer QoL, and maladaptive coping are present in patients with psoriasis when compared with controls. Gender appears to be an important moderator in the relationship between psoriasis and depression.

Keywords

• asia
• coping
• depression
• gender
• psoriasis