Female Psoriasis Patients Susceptible to Increased Risk of Depression

A recent study published in the British Journal of Dermatology reported a spike in the risk of depression among women afflicted with psoriasis.

Erica D. Dommasch, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess medical Center, Boston, and her research team conducted a prospective cohort study investigating the risk of incident depression in individuals with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

The researchers applied data from a total of 50,750 US female nurses participating in the Nurses’ Health Study who were free of depression at baseline in 2000.

Dommasch and team defined depression as “self-report of clinician-diagnosed depression or regular use of anti-depressant medication.”

They found that after adjusting for covariates like body mass index (BMI), physical activity, smoking, and the presence of major chronic conditions, the adjusted relative risk of clinical depression was 1.29 for women with psoriasis and 1.52 for women with psoriasis and concomitant psoriatic arthritis vs. women without psoriasis.

The authors concluded, “Future studies are needed to confirm these findings in other populations and to identify pathophysiological mechanisms linking psoriasis to depression.”