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Abstract
Atopic dermatitis is a common skin disorder. The age distribution is mainly located
from infancy to adolescence, which period is the most important for forming character
or effecting their psychological condition. We used three types of psychological tests
to investigate anxiety, depression and psychosomatic symptoms in 45 patients with
atopic dermatitis and 34 normal controls. These tests consisted of the manifest anxiety
scale (MAS), self-rating depression scale (SDS) and Cornell Medical Index (CMI). On
the MAS, the atopic dermatitis group did not show any statistical difference from
normal controls. However, the SDS and the CMI produced statistically significant differences
(P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). Furthermore, we classified their symptom in three degrees
of severity (mild: 15; moderate: 14; severe: 16). Patients with mild symptoms did
not show any statistical difference from normal controls on the three tests. Patients
with moderate symptoms showed a statistically significant difference from normal controls
on the SDS (P < 0.01) and the CMI (P < 0.05), but not on the MAS. Finally, patients with severe symptoms (in-patients)
produced somewhat lower test scores than those with moderate symptoms. We conclude
that the patients with atopic dermatitis were more depressive and psychosomatic symptom-prone
than normal controls, and suggest that some patients with atopic dermatitis should
be treated both dermatologically and psychiatrically.
Keywords
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 7,
1996
Received in revised form:
April 5,
1996
Received:
February 6,
1996
Footnotes
☆This work was presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology on 7–8 September 1995 in Okayama.
Identification
Copyright
© 1997 Published by Elsevier Inc.
