Research Article Open Access Open Access Research Article El-Moselhy et al., Dermatol Case Rep 2015,1:1 Dermatology Case Reports D e r m a t o lo g y C a s e R e p o r t Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000104 Dermatol Case Rep an open access journal *Corresponding author: Essam A El-Moselhy, Department of public Health and Community Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt, Tel: 002-01006317065; E-mail: dr_elmoselhy@yahoo.com Received: November 25, 2015; Accepted: December 22, 2015; Published: December 24, 2015 Citation: El-Moselhy EA, Atlam SA, Mohammed AS, Hassan HM, Ebrahim AM (2015) Psychosocial Impact and Quality of Life among Adult Egyptian Patients with Psoriasis. Dermatol Case Rep 1: 104. Copyright: © 2015 El-Moselhy EA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Psychosocial Impact and Quality of Life among Adult Egyptian Patients with Psoriasis Essam A El-Moselhy 1 *, Salwa A Atlam 1 , Abd-Elnaser S Mohammed 1 , Hassan M Hassan 2 and Abd-Elkrim M Ebrahim 3 1 Departments of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar and Tanta University, Egypt 2 Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt 3 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt Keywords: Psoriasis; Adults; Impact; Psychosocial; Familial; Care; QOL Introduction Tere is a common misperception that skin diseases are somehow less serious than other medical illnesses. Tis can be attributed to the fact that skin disorders are ofen chronic but not life-threatening, so the perceived impact on the patient is more likely to be minimized in the minds of health professionals, policy makers, and the general public [1]. Itching and pain interfere with periods of rest and sleeping [2]. Further, there is a link between severe psoriasis and an increased risk of early death [3]. Although, much of the world’s population fnds psoriasis is a trivial matter requiring little understanding or sympathy [2]. In absence of the complete cure, aim of treatment is to minimize the extent and severity of disease and to reduce its impact on patients’ quality of life (QOL) [4]. Te strongest impact of psoriasis on patients’ QOL is frequency of exacerbations [5]. Psoriasis treatment adds substantial costs to the health care system [6]. Moreover, psychological stress [7] and a vicious circle may ensue following deterioration of the disease [8]. Te ability to assess the impact of skin disease on patient is important in order to understand and meet what patient really needs [9]. But, there is a controversy about the defnition of QOL and whether it can be meaningfully assessed [10]. Reasons for why health related (HR) QOL measurement may be helpful include; clinical therapeutic and health service researches, research into psychological aspects of dermatology and patient behavior, political/resource allocation and informing clinical decisions [11]. It is evident that psoriasis can have a profound impact on the afected person’s QOL, which extends beyond the physical symptoms experienced by the patient. Psoriasis, as well as the therapies necessary to control it, can infuence many diferent spheres of a patient’s life; including career, fnances, work, leisure activities, emotions, personal relationships, fatigue, and physical intimacy. Te subsequent efects on a patient’s social and mental health can be dramatic [1,12-17]. Indeed, psoriasis does have a major impact on QOL, arising from both physical [14,16,18] and emotional [14,18] aspects of the disease. Also, the psychosocial efects of psoriasis are just as important as the physical efects in contributing to overall patient morbidity [1]. Moreover, patients may sufer from experiences of stigmatization, which related to psoriasis [19,20]. Tis of itself contributes to everyday disability leading to depression and suicidal ideation in >5.0% of patients [21]. Abstract Background: Psoriasis is common, chronic disease of the skin. The disease has psychosocial impact and associated with impairments in Quality of Life (QOL). Aim of the study: It was to defne the psychosocial impact of psoriasis and to determine QOL of the psoriasis patients. Patients and methods: This study was conducted on 100 adult patients with psoriasis, attending Dermatology Clinic, Al-Hussein University Hospital and an equal number of normal adults as controls. An analytic, case-control, clinic based study design was selected to conduct this research. An interviewing form and Middle Sex Hospital Questionnaire were used to survey psychosocial impact of the disease and psychiatric symptoms. Dermatology life quality index was used to assess disease impact on the patients’ QOL. Results: The most common statistically signifcant impact was the interference with daily activities (59.0%). This was higher in patients with severe disease (96.2%) and with disease affected visible areas of the body (70.6%). The depression was the commonest psychiatric symptom (27.0%); 46.2% and 35.3% in patients with severe disease and with disease affected visible areas of the body, respectively. QOL was poor in 73.0% of the patients; the most common affected QOL mean domains scores were symptoms and feelings (15.8 ± 5.4), personal relationships (14.6 ± 5.2), and daily activities (14.4 ± 4.9). All QOL mean domain scores were statistically signifcantly higher in patients with disease affected visible areas of the body and with severe disease. Conclusions and recommendations: Psoriasis has a great effect on the patients’ QOL. It disrupting psychosocial aspects and interfering with symptoms and feelings, daily activities, etc. The highest mean domain was symptoms and feelings (15.8) and the lowest mean was treatment (13.6). It could be recommended that more researches should be carried out on big number of patients in Egypt and on different clinical types to understand the impact of this disease.