Depression is a frequent co-morbidity in patients with acne inversa.

BACKGROUND

Acne inversa (AI) is a common chronic inflammatory disease that has a profound impact on the patientsí quality of life. We hypothesized a higher level of depression in AI patients compared to controls.

OBJECTIVES

We studied depression in patients with AI and control subjects. Additionally, we evaluated whether the severity of the disease, anxiety, sexual distress and acute inflammation may have an influence on depression.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was given to 90 voluntary study participants to assess depression in AI patients and in age-, gender-, and BMI-matched controls. Moreover, the correlation between depression and conjectural influencing factors was evaluated.

RESULTS

This study demonstrated that AI patients have a higher depression score than matched controls. Importantly, 38.6% of AI patients are affected by depression compared to 2.4% of the control subjects. In contrast to the duration of the disease and the AI patientsí age, anxiety and sexual distress showed a strong correlation with the degree of depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with AI have a higher risk of developing depression. Physicians should be alert to the possible development of depression when treating patients with this disorder.