Assessment of psychiatric and psychosocial factors disposing to chronic outcome of dermatoses.

In many skin diseases, itching and scratching is a vicious circle, which prolongs the disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms which make itching skin diseases more chronic. The patients consisted of seven diagnostic groups--79 inpatients all together. The dermatoses were: dermatitis herpetiformis, lichen ruber planus, chronic eczema, atopic eczema, neurodermatitis circumscriptus, prurico psychogenous and lichen obtusus corneus. Both psychiatric and dermatological examinations were performed. Psychiatric disturbance was clearly greater than in the average population. The chronifying mechanisms were the following: personality disorder as a treatment problem; emotional infantility, which makes the illness itself an important security factor; itching and scratching as pleasure and content of life; the accumulation of various other diseases, both somatic and psychiatric; and untreated depression. Information was obtained on the possibilities of psychiatric treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation.