ORIGINAL ARTICLE 406 P J M H S Vol. 12, NO. 1, JAN – MAR 2018 Impact of Androgenetic Alopecia on the Psychological Health of young men MUHAMMAD DANYAL*, SYED IMRAN ALI SHAH, M SABEEH UL HASSAN*, WALEED QURESHI* ABSTRACT Background: Hair represent an important aspect of an individual’s self-image and affect social perceptions about that individual. Hair loss caused by androgenetic alopecia is also known to affect the psychological well-being of an individual but local data in this context is lacking. Aim: To investigate the psychological impact of hair loss among young men in the local population. Design: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, three psychometric scales assessing anxiety, self- esteem and depression were administered to male participants between 20 to 30 years of age (n=90).Participants were grouped into those with mild to moderate hair loss and moderate to severe hair loss using the Norwood-Hamilton scale. Age-matched men without evident hair loss were included as controls. Results: Significantly low self-esteem (p=0.000) and high anxiety levels (p=0.001) were seen in men with hair loss as compared to men who had no hair loss. No difference was observed in terms of depressive symptoms between the control group and the groups of men with hair loss (p=0.084) Conclusions: Young men from the local population affected by hair loss suffer from psychological complications including anxiety and low self-esteem. Psychosocial measures need to be installed to facilitate affected men in overcoming such deficits. Cosmetic treatments may also be used as a remedy for the psychological concern arising due to hair loss. Further research is needed into the factors affecting psychological health of men with hair loss. Keywords: Androgenetic alopecia, hair loss, depression, anxiety, self-esteem INTRODUCTION Male pattern baldness or androgenetic alopecia is a common condition known to affect between one-third to half all men by the age of 50 years 1 . The pathophysiology of androgenetic alopecia includes changes in follicular growth cycle (short anagen phase of cycle and normal or prolonged telogen phase), sebaceous gland over secretion and follicular inflammation 1 . Familial tendency, genetic predisposition and racial variation in the prevalence of balding is well recognized 2,3 . Androgenetic alopecia has also been associated with increasing age and medical conditions including hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity 1,4 . Hair constitutes an attractive element of human body and also serves other functions such as thermoregulation and proprioception 5 . Most men consider hair to be an important feature of image with regard to self-image and personal attractiveness 6 . Hair loss impacts upon the psychological health and quality of life of the affected individuals 7 and increasing degree of hair loss leads to social unattractiveness 8 . Men with hair loss face ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *MBBS student, Central Park Medical College, Lahore Department of Biochemistry, Central Park Medical College, Lahore, Correspondence to Dr. Syed Imran Ali Shah, Associate Professor & Head Email: .shah10@alumni.imperial.ac.uk, Cell: 0337- 1429596 psychosocial pressure and negative social perceptions about their appearance. Those with severe baldness generally appear older, less attractive and less potent than there age fellows with normal hair distribution 9 . Hair loss not only results in dissatisfaction over physical appearance in affected individuals but these men are also prone to developing psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and social phobia as compared to individual with normal hair 8 . Progressive and severe hair loss has been linked to depression, low confidence and low self- esteem, most notably in young men 10 . However, research on psychological issues due to hair loss has been in consistent and employed vastly differing subjective approaches, thus making interpretation of the psychological consequences extremely challenging. Furthermore, local data on the psychosomatic sequelae of hair loss in are lacking despite the common occurrence of androgenetic alopecia. The present study was conducted to investigate the psychological impact of hair loss in young men from the local population. METHODOLOGY A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed for this study. Ethics approval was obtained from the Central Park Research Ethics