Substantial skin disorders in psychiatric illness coincide with diabetes and addiction

Dermatological diseases in psychiatric patients are common; however, epidemiological data on this subject are scarce and to our knowledge integral studies of dermatological disease in psychiatric inpatients are not available yet.

The aim of this study was to describe the incidence of dermatological problems in psychiatric inpatients.

This study evaluates the consultations for new dermatological problems by inpatients of a general psychiatric hospital of over 700 beds during a 6-month period.

A total of 255 patients consulted their physician because of a new dermatological problem. Diagnoses (n=360) included skin infections (32%), accidents (7%), decubitus ulcers (7%), complications of medical treatment (3%), auto mutilation (1%) and neoplasms of the skin (1%). Patients with skin infections were likely to have diabetes [odds ratio (OR)=3.6; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.56-8.40]. Patients with decubitus ulcers were likely to have an addiction problem (OR=6.4; 95% CI: 1.46-28.00). Dermatitis was associated with affective disorder (OR=2.5; 95% CI: 1.12-5.43) but not with psychosis (OR=0.5; 95% CI: 0.23-0.90). Only a poor correlation existed between the length of hospital stay and skin problems.

Dermatological problems are common in hospitalized psychiatric patients. Patients with diabetes mellitus are at high risk for skin infections. There are significant relationships between the psychiatric and the dermatological diagnoses. The length of the admission to a psychiatric hospital does not seem to play a major role in skin diseases.