The impact of psoriasis on marriage

Psoriasis frequently affects partners and intimacy and sometimes leads to a break in relationships. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible negative impact of psoriasis on married life using the Quality Marriage Index (QMI), a score used to assess marital satisfaction.

In this prospective case-control study married or divorced patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis were compared to a control group made up of married or divorced healthy patients without psoriasis. Each patient enrolled in the study was given the questionnaire to assess the QMI.

Two hundred one patients were included in the study sample: 100 suffered from moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and the other 101 did not. A significantly higher number of psoriatic patients was divorced than patients without psoriasis. By analyzing the QMI questionnaire, patients with psoriasis scored lower than patients without psoriasis in all single questions and in the total QMI value. By assessing how much each question weighed in the QMI final score, a significant difference between the two groups of patients was found in questions 3 and 6: the first one regarding the strength of marriage weighed more in psoriatic patients, while the second one regarding the happiness of marriage weighed more in non-psoriasis patients.

Psoriasis can contribute to marriage breakdown in affected patients. The concept of happiness seems to be greatly affected by the repercussions of psoriasis, while the strength of marriage plays a fundamental role in these patients.