Psychiatric evaluation and personality in psoriasis patients.

OBJECTIVES

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory, autoaggressive disease. It is known that psychiatric comorbidity in psoriasis contributes to the progression and exacerbation of the disease. This study aims to examine psychiatric disorders and personality traits in a sample of patients with psoriasis.

METHODS

Personal information forms, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Hospital-Anxiety-Depression Scale (HADS), Five-Factor Personality Inventory Short Form (BFI) were used for all participants. Psoriasis patients were evaluated with clinical information form, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and psoriasis-area-severity-index (PASI). Psychiatric disorders were investigated with the Structured-Clinical-Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) diagnosis.

RESULTS

A total of 129 participants completed the case-control study. Psoriasis patients' HADS-total score showed positive correlation with the PASI and DLQI score. SCID interview was conducted with 39(66.1%) psoriasis patients with GHQ-12 score of ≥2, and 25 patients (42.4%) received at least one psychiatric diagnosis. Conscientiousness, agreeableness, and stability were higher in patients with psoriasis than in healthy controls. In psoriasis patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, Plasticity, and Openness to experience personality traits scores showed a significant decrease with a medium effect size. In psoriasis patients without a psychiatric diagnosis, high stability scores were associated with positive emotionality and social well-being, while low plasticity levels were determined as predictors of psychopathology.

CONCLUSION

In improving the quality of life of psoriasis patients, it is important to plan effective treatments for both psoriasis and psychopathology and to evaluate biological vulnerabilities such as personality traits in terms of the risk of comorbid psychopathology.

KEYPOINTS: In psoriasis patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, Plasticity, and Openness to Experience personality traits scores showed a significant decrease with a medium effect size.Plasticity predicted psychiatric diagnosis significantly, and negatively in psoriasis patients.In psoriasis patients without a psychiatric diagnosis, high stability scores were associated with positive emotionality and social well-being, while low plasticity levels were determined as predictors of psychopathology.