Psoriatic arthritis patients had significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety than those with psoriasis alone. People with psoriatic arthritis and psoriatic arthritis didn’t have different rates of suicidal thoughts, but they were still higher than the general population.
People who have psoriasis may be more likely to have depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems if they have psoriatic arthritis (PsA), according to a study that was published this week in the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
People who have psoriasis are more likely to be depressed and have bad behavioural health symptoms, but researchers say they don’t know why. Complications like PsA, which affects up to one-third of people with psoriasis, may also make these risks even worse.
“Because depression can have a negative effect on the course of psoriasis, and because depression often goes unnoticed in patients, it is important to look for groups that might be affected and look for symptoms that are linked to psychiatric morbidity and mortality to improve quality of life,” said the study authors. As a result, combined skin and joint symptoms can have a big impact on how well you can do your job. Because of this, it is possible that going from RA to PsA makes you more depressed.
They wanted to find out if PsA is linked to depression and other behavioural health symptoms, such as lifetime suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and anhedonia, so they did a cross-sectional survey of tertiary patients aged 18 to 65 with dermatologist-confirmed chronic plaque psoriasis (n = 219). 84 people in the study had PsA that was confirmed by a rheumatologist.
Participants were also checked to see if suicidality and depressive symptoms severity were linked to clinical markers of psoriasis severity and chronicity. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Sheehan-Suicidality Tracking Scale were used to measure depression and suicidality in the past.
People with psoriasis who had a score of 8 or more on the HADS-Depression subscale were considered to be depressed. People with psoriasis who had other physical conditions were also considered to be depressed (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.92; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.53-5.68).
People with psoriasis and PsA also had higher levels of anhedonia and anxiety, even after controlling for their psychiatric history. Nearly half of the people who took part in the study had suicidal thoughts at some point in their lives, with or without the intention to kill themselves. 21.3 percent had suicidal plans and 9.4 percent had tried to kill themselves. no significant difference was found between people who had PsA and people who didn’t have PsA when it came to lifetime suicidality prevalence (52.5 percent vs 46.6 percent ).
Depression symptoms and suicidal thoughts were not found to be linked to objective measures of psoriasis severity or the type of treatment given.