(1) Irrespective of the degree of severity, patients with acne are at increased risk for anxiety and depression compared to the normal population. (2) Acne negatively affects quality of life, and the greater the impairment of quality of life due to acne, the greater the level of anxiety and depression. (3) A greater impairment of dermatologic quality of life seems to put the patient at an increased risk for anxiety disorder.

Psoriasis is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease with unknown etiology. Recently it has been suggested that increased ROS production and deficient function of antioxidant systems activities may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although there are several studies investigating oxidant/antioxidant systems in psoriatic patients, the data obtained from these studies is not concordant. In this study, superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant potential (AOP) levels in thirty-five patients with psoriasis were investigated and compared with those of twenty-four control subjects. Clinical severity of the disease was determined according to the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores in the patients. Plasma SOD activity and MDA levels were significantly higher (p=0.012 and p=0.005 respectively), whereas AOP levels were lower, in patients than controls (p=0.001). There was no correlation between PASI scores and plasma SOD, MDA, and AOP levels. Our findings may provide some evidence for a potential role of increased ROS production and decreased antioxidant activity in psoriasis.

Acne is a multifactorial, chronic inflammatory disease of pilosebaceous unit in which cytokines have been implicated in the pathogenesis. Although it is thought to be an inherited disease, there are limited data supporting the relevant genetic elements. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is one of the proinflammatory cytokines involved in the acne pathogenesis. Several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in the human TNF-alpha gene promoter. The polymorphism at position -308, which involves substituting guanine (G) for adenine (A) (TNFA-308 G/A) has been linked to increased susceptibility to several chronic inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the TNFA-308 G/A polymorphism in acne and to examine whether there is a relationship between this polymorphism and disease susceptibility. Exactly, 113 patients with acne and 114 healthy control subjects were included in the study. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay was used for analysis of the TNFA-308 G/A polymorphism. We found that the frequency of the TNFA-308 GA genotype was statistically significantly increased in patients compared with healthy controls (P < 0.001). There was no association between TNFA genotypes and severity of acne (P > 0.05). There was also no significant difference between male and female patients. Our results suggest that TNFA-308 G/A polymorphism may contribute to a predisposition to acne in Turkish population.

Our results suggest that rosacea is an oxidative stress condition, as reflected by the increased ROS activity and decreased AOP, regardless of HP infection.

Our results show that the prevalence of pediculosis capitis is not very high in Mersin, Turkey, and is observed in all schools regardless of the socio-economic and personal hygiene status of the children.