Influence of stressful life events on coping in psoriasis

Outbreaks of psoriasis usually can be linked with traumatic life stress events. Stressful life events in response to psychosocial trigger have been reported to negatively affect the course of psoriasis and are regarded as preventable causes of morbidity. Aims of this study were to determine which coping strategies are mostly used in psoriatic patients and to determine if there is a difference in coping according genders, clinical stages and stress level. The result shows that denial, active coping, seeking emotional support, positive reframing and acceptance are most frequently used among psoriatic patients. In adaptive coping psoriatic patients Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score was 16.24, in maladaptive coping psoriatic patients PASI score was 19.6. Difference between adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in psoriatic patients according clinical stage measured by PASI score was not statistically significant. Psoriatic patients who had higher score of life stress events (461.57) measured by Life change units (LCU) used maladaptive coping statistically significant more then patients with lower life stress events score (284.71). The results point to the need of psoriatic patients to learn how to cope with stress, enabling them to change ways of coping. There is need for integrating psychological intervention into standard care protocol of chronic dermatologic disease as psoriasis.