Determination of depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) levels in patients with atopic dermatitis: a case-control study

The present study was aimed at comparing depression, anxiety and stress (DAS) levels of individuals with atopic dermatitis with those of the individuals without atopic dermatitis, and to examine the DAS levels of the patients with atopic dermatitis in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics. Case control study conducted in a city in western Turkey. The present study in which the relational screening model was used was conducted with patients with atopic dermatitis who presented to the Dermatology Clinic/Polyclinic of a university hospital and healthy subjects, and volunteered to participate in the study. The study conducted between December 2017 and February 2018 included 150 people (75 healthy subjects, 75 patients with atopic dermatitis). To collect the study data, the participants were administered the Socio-demographic Characteristics Questionnaire prepared by the researcher and the Depression, Stress and Anxiety Scale (DASS-42). No significant difference was determined between the mean DASS scores obtained by the atopic dermatitis patients and those obtained by the healthy subjects in the control group (p > 0.05). Of the atopic dermatitis patients, 58.7%, 82.3% and 49.3% were within the normal ranges in terms of the mean scores they obtained from the stress, depression and anxiety subscales respectively. In the present study, the mean scores obtained from the depression and anxiety subscales by working atopic dermatitis patients were higher than those obtained by the nonworking patients (p < 0.05). The mean scores obtained from the stress subscale by the smokers with atopic dermatitis were higher than those obtained by the non-smokers with atopic dermatitis.