Carmen Brufau Redondo

Psoriasis lesions are associated with specific types of emotions. Emotional profile in psoriasis

BackgroundAt present there is still controversy about the relationship between emotional stress and psoriasis lesions. Most of the published literature does not include the broad spectrum of emotional response.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the association between skin lesions and emotional state in a large sample of patients with psoriasis.Methods823 psoriasis patients were recruited (mean age 45.9 years, 55.7% female) and answered two online questionnaires: lesion severity and current extension were evaluated using a self-administered psoriasis severity index (SAPASI); emotional state was assessed using the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Second order factors were calculated and correlated with the SAPASI.ResultsWe found positive associations between the extent and severity of skin lesions and the negative and submissive emotions, a negative correlation with dominance emotions and no association with positive emotions.ConclusionsOur data supports the relationship between emotions and skin lesions. It also allows for discrimination of the associations between psoriasis lesions and the specific type of emotions.

Personality in Patients with Psoriasis

It has been known since antiquity that a connection exists between the skin and the mind. In fact, the first documented case of psychodermatosis dates to 1700 BC, when the physician to the prince of Persia speculated that the prince’s psoriasis was caused by anxiety over succeeding his father to the throne (Shafii & Shafii, 1979). However, it was not until 1891 that Brocq and Jacquet coined the term neurodermatitis and hypothesised that there was a pathological association between the skin and the autonomic nervous system, given that itching precipitates the appearance of lesions (Braun-Falco, Plewig, Wolff, & Winkelmann). A further 62 years passed before “Emotional Factors in Skin Disease” (Wittkower & Russell, 1953) was published. Since then, physicians, and dermatologists in particular, have been steadily becoming aware of the impact of an individual’s emotional state on skin disease and how this organ can reflect, like a mirror, their psychological state. It should come as no surprise that these two structures have a common origin in the ectoderm.