ASSESSING ILLNESS-RELATED STRESS IN PSORIASIS - THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE PSORIASIS LIFE STRESS INVENTORY

The purpose of the present study was to undertake a clinical and psych ometric reappraisal of the Psoriasis Life Stress Inventory (PLSI). Tot al PLSI score was inversely related to age of onset of psoriasis, but bore no significant relationship to duration or to clinical severity. Similarly, patients' stress score did not differ with regards to the n ature of their current treatment, to their beliefs as to what was resp onsible far exacerbation or improvement of their condition, or to the patients' gender. Factor analysis extracted two factors which suggeste d that the psychosocial impact of psoriasis results from stress associ ated with: (i) engaging in anticipatory/avoidance coping behavior that is effected to limit the sociocognitive intrusiveness of psoriasis; a nd (ii) stress resulting from patients' beliefs or actual experiences of being evaluated by others sorely on the basis of their skin. The in ternal reliability of the scale can be improved by the deletion of thr ee items. Revision of the PLSI is recommended to render it psychometri cally and clinically acceptable for use in the UK. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Inc.