INTERPERSONAL CONCERNS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES OF PSORIASIS PATIENTS - EFFECTS OF DISEASE SEVERITY AND FEAR OF NEGATIVE EVALUATION

Psoriasis creates interpersonal difficulties for many sufferers, but l ittle research has examined factors that contribute to the degree of s ocial and psychological disability that a particular person experience s. In all, 318 psoriasis patients completed measures of psychological and social well-being, the severity of their psoriasis, and their disp ositional level of fear of negative evaluation (FNE). Analyses showed that disease severity and FNE significantly; predicted perceptions of being stigmatized, interpersonal discomfort, stress over others' react ions, distress regarding the observable symptoms of the disease, the d egree to which psoriasis interfered with the patients' lives, and pati ents' quality of life. Furthermore, FNE exerted a particularly strong influence for patients who had severe cases of psoriasis.