Psychodermatology: A Study of Co-Morbid Skin Disorders in Primary Psychiatric Conditions

Abstract

Background:The skin is an organ of communication and plays an important role in socialization. Skin is an organ that reacts directly upon emotional stimuli. The relationship between the 'skin' and the 'mind' is complex and of clinical importance. Aims: Assessing cutaneous disorders in patients with primary psychiatric conditions. Methods: One hundred patients with a primary psychiatric condition who had cutaneous disease were entered into the study group. The patients were classified appropriately based on the classification of psychocutaneous disorders. The control group included 100 patients presenting with a skin disorder and without any known psychiatric complaint. Results: In our study group there were 49 males and 51 females, Most of the cases and control group were in 2nd to 5th decade. The primary psychiatric condition in our study were Major depressive Disorder (44%), schizophrenia (31%), Anxiety disorder (18%), Bipolar Disorder (7%). In our study group we found 34% of the patient had Dermatophyte infection followed by the Bacterial infection (27%). Acne vulgaris (12%), parasitic infection like scabies seen in 11% of the study group, eczemas seen in 5% of the patients followed by pigmentary disorder (5%), papulosquamous like psoriasis seen in 4% and Hansen's in 2% of the patients. Conclusion: A statistically significant higher incidence of dermatophyte infections, Acne Vulgaris and Parasitic infections was seen in the study group.

Skin Disorders in Patients With Primary Psychiatric Conditions in Rural Population of Gurugram.

“…In our study delusional parasitoses was seen to be twice more common in females than males as also observed in other studies [5], [6], [8].…”

“…Among dermatoses aggravated by self inflicted trauma, lichen simplex chronicus was found to have incidence of 6% as against the reported high incidence of 11.4% [4] and as low as 3.33% [6] and 2% [8]. Psychiatric disorders, like anxiety neurosis and neurotic depression, are common among people with lichen simplex chronicus.…”