Evaluation of psychological factors and quality of life in patients with vitiligo

Objective: the aim of this study was to assess the psychogenic factors such as social anxiety, self-esteem, anxiety and depression and sexuality in vitiligo patients and investigating the effect of disease on quality of life. material-method: fourty clinically diagnosed cases with vitiligo admitted to departments of dermatology outpatient clinic of training and research hospital were compared with fourty healthy control subjects both sexes were 16-65 years. the subjects were assessed with the hospital anxiety and depression scale (hads), arizona sexual experiences scale (asex), liebowitz social anxiety scale (lsas), skindex-29 and rosenberg self esteem scale (rses). results: the percentage of psychiatric treatment in vitiligo patients was significantly higher than control group. the levels of social anxiety, anxiety and depression scores were significantly higher in vitiligo group than the control group.vitiligo group had low self-esteem. among females and males, sexual drive and orgasm of the vitiligo group was more difficulty and total score of sexual experiences was significantly higher than the control group. in vitiligo group quality of life was statistically significantly lower than control group according to higher levels of social anxiety, patients with lower self-esteem, higher levels of anxiety and depression scores and smokers. discussion: the results of our study support the previous findings suggesting that the rate of psychiatric morbidity is higher and life quality is lower in patients with vitiligo than healthy controls.