DEPRESSION AND SUICIDAL IDEATION IN DERMATOLOGY PATIENTS WITH ACNE, ALOPECIA-AREATA, ATOPIC-DERMATITIS AND PSORIASIS

We examined the prevalence of depression (measured by the Carroll Rati ng Scale for Depression, CRSD), wishes to be dead and acute suicidal i deation among 480 patients with dermatological disorders that may be c osmetically disfiguring, i.e. non-cystic facial acne (n = 72; 5.6% sui cidal ideation), alopecia areata (n=45: 0% suicidal ideation), atopic dermatitis (n=146; 2.1% suicidal ideation) and psoriasis (79 outpatien ts, 2.5% suicidal ideation and 138 inpatients, 7.2% suicidal ideation) , Analysis of variance revealed that the severely affected psoriasis i npatients (mean +/- SD total body surface area affected: 52+/-23.4%) h ad the highest (P<0.05) CRSD score, followed by the patients with mild to moderate acne: bath scores were in the range for clinical depressi on (CRSD score >10). The 5.6-7.2% prevalence of active suicidal ideati on among the psoriasis and acne patients was higher than the 2.4-3.3% prevalence reported among general medical patients, Our findings highl ight the importance of recognizing psychiatric comorbidity, especially depression, among dermatology patients and indicate that in some inst ances even clinically mild to moderate disease such as non-cystic faci al acne can be associated with significant depression and suicidal ide ation.