Siddhartha Paul1, Nandita Paul2, C M Reza Quarashi Forhad3, Avijit Das4
1. Associate Professor, Psychiatry, North East Medical College, Sylhet
2. Registrar, Skin and VD, North East Medical College, Sylhet
3. Assistant Professor, Biochemistry, Tairunnessa Memorial Medical College
4. Associate Professor, Microbiology, North East Medical College, Sylhet
Abstract
Introduction: Skin diseases accounts for about 15% of a general practitioner’s workload. Psoriasis is a common chronic, recurrent, inflammatory disease of the skin. Psoriasis is found about 1-3% of population. Acne vulgaris, more commonly referred as acne, is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the pilocebaceous unit that affects at least 85 percent of adolescents and young adults. Acne mainly affects during adult life and usually disappears by the age 25 yrs. Some time the disease may continue 3rd to 4th decayed. As there is limited research work regarding depression of psoriasis and acne patient in our country, that’s why proportion of depression must be find out from the patient suffering from psoriasis and acne.
Study Design: It was a comparative cross sectional study. The study was carried out in the department of Department of dermatology and venereology. Sylhet Osmani Medical College & Hospital, Sylhet, from July 2005 to June 2006. A total of 100 patients who fulfill the inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken for the study. Full clinical psychiatric assessment was carried out by MSE & diagnosis was assigned according to DSM-IV. Severity of depression was assessed by The Hamilton Scale for Depression.
Result: The result of the study shows that there was 38% psoriasis patients were suffering from depression and in Acne patients 16% were suffering from depression. This result was statistically significant. In case of severity most of the depressed patient were moderately depressed, which was statistically non significant.
Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of recognizing psychiatric morbidity, especially depression, among dermatological patients and indicates that in some instances psoriasis and acne can be associated with significant depression. That’s why it is recommended that special attention should be paid towards the dermatological patients about their co-morbid psychiatric disorder by the dermatologist as well as by the general practitioners. So, that early psychiatric consultation is possible, which will help to early recovery from the disease.