FRIDAY, Sept. 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Depression is common among patients with psoriasis, according to a study published online Sept. 14 in Dermatology.
Albert Duvetorp, from Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden, and colleagues used data from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and electronic medical records (April 9, 2008, to Jan. 1, 2016) to assess the prevalence of pharmacologically treated depression among individuals with and without psoriasis in a Swedish population using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes.
The researchers found that the risk for pharmacologically treated depression was higher in individuals with psoriasis (age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio, 1.55), with 21.1 percent of women with psoriasis receiving pharmacological treatment for depression compared with 14.2 percent of the control population. Compared with men with psoriasis, the prevalence of depression was significantly higher in women with psoriasis. Male and female patients with psoriasis younger than 31 years had the highest risk for suffering from depression.
“The results of the current study underline the need for dermatologists to adopt a holistic approach, looking beyond the skin, when handling patients with psoriasis in everyday clinical practice,” the authors write.
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