A Psychocutaneous Profile of Psoriasis Who Are Stress Reactors

Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing, cutaneous condition with a I%-2% prevalence in thegeneral population. About 40% of psoriafics report that psychosocial stress significantly exacerbates their condition. However, the clinical characferistics of the subgroup of psoriatic patients who are stress reactors have not been delineated. At a practical clinical level if is fherefore difficult to implement specific psychosocial treatments among the psoriatic population. In this study, we compared the psychocutaneous characteristics of patients who reported that stress exacerbated their psoriasis, i.e., the high stress reactors (N = 64) to the subgroup who reported no significant association between stress and their psoriasis, i.e., the low stress reactors (N = 63). The high stress reactors had more disfiguring disease clinically (p < 0.02); psychologically they fended to rely more upon the approval of others (p < 0.05) and experienced more psoriasis-related daily stress (p < 0.005). The high stress reactors also reported more flare-ups of their psoriasis during the 6 months prior to admission (p < 0.05). We have shown that the high stress reactors can be clinically delineated from the low stress reactors. Certain psychosocial interventions will most likely decrease the morbidity associated with psoriasis among the high stress reactors, and may possibly even result in a decline in the number of major flare-ups of the