Prevalence of psychological disorders in patients with alopecia areata in comparison with normal subjects

Abstract

Alopecia areata is a chronic disease with a great impact on the patient's quality of life. In this study we reviewed the frequency of psychological disorders in patients with alopecia areata in comparison to a control group. We enrolled 40 patients with alopecia areata and a 40-volunteer random age-sex matched control group. The study is based on anxiety and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Analytical evaluation was done by Mann-Whitney, Kruskal Wallis, and t-tests. There was a significant difference between the case and control group regarding the prevalence of depression (P value = 0.008), anxiety (P value = 0.003), and neuroticism (P value = 0.05). There was no significant differences regarding extraversion (P value = 0.249), psychosis (P value = 0.147), and lying (P value = 0.899) between the two groups. In alopecia areata involving the head, there was a significant relation only between neuroticism (P value = 0.045) and lying (P value = 0.005). The facial involvement had a significant relation with depression (P value = 0.020), anxiety (P value = 0.019), and neuroticism (P value = 0.029). The frequency of psychological disorders in the case group is significantly greater than the control group.

Figure 1

Comparison of the two groups regarding number of cases with depression, anxiety, extraversion, neurosis, psychosis, and lying. (Group  1: case; Group  2: control).