The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stress-related Dermatologic Diseases

The number and variety of patients admitted to hospitals have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes have also affected dermatology clinics. The pandemic has had an adverse effect on the psychology of people by negatively affecting their quality of life. Patients who were admitted to the Bursa City Hospital Dermatology Clinic between July 15, 2020 and October 15, 2020 and from July 15, 2019 to October 15, 2019 were included in this study. The data of patients were gathered retrospectively by reviewing the electronic medical records and International Classification Diseases (ICD-10) codes. Our results showed that, despite the decrease in the total number of applications, a significant increase was observed in the frequency of stress-related dermatological diseases such as psoriasis (P<0.001), urticaria (P<0.001), atopic dermatitis (P<0.001), and seborrheic dermatitis (P=0.035). However, there was no significant change in the rates of alopecia areata, vitiligo, herpes zoster, and lichen simplex chronicus (P>0.05, for all). There was a significant decrease in the telogen effluvium rate during the pandemic (P<0.001). Our study demonstrates that the incidence of certain stress-related dermatologic diseases increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may increase awareness of dermatologists on this issue.