Psychiatric morbidity in psoriasis and vitiligo: A comparative study

The psychiatric morbidity in psoriasis patients was compared with that in vitiligo patients using the standardised Hindi (vernacular language) version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-H). Thirty new and untreated patients each with psoriasis or vitiligo and between the ages of 18-60 yrs, constituted the study group. The prevalences of psychiatric morbidity as assessed by the GHQ-H were found to be 53.3% and 16.22% in the psoriasis and vitiligo patients respectively; the difference was statistically significant (p=0.0028). The prevalences of depression were 23.3% and 10% in psoriasis and vitiligo respectively and anxiety was observed in 3.3% of each group. Sleep disturbance was the most common complaint and was present in 56.6% of psoriasis patients and 20% of the vitiligo patients. However, the parameter of sleep disturbance showed a statistically significant difference between the two dermatoses (p=0.0034).