Introduction: Acne is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the skin that most commonly presents during adolescence, a period with psychological instability. It has been known as a ubiquitous affliction with physical and emotional scars that persists throughout the life of the affected individuals. Besides experience of impaired functional status and decreased quality of life, it has been recently substantiated the psychological impacts of acne appearance and proved its-related negative emotional reactions in the patients. Objective: To assess the acne vulgaris and impact on psychological mood disorders status in patients attending skin OPD. Methods: Thirty four patients with acne vulgaris who consecutively attended the dermatology outpatient clinics in ------------------ were included. The study participants or their family members or relatives had no history of other skin disorders as well as no history of psychological problems. None of the patients had history of smoking and alcohol use. Moreover, none of them tended to special dietary patterns. The participants also had no history of anti-psychotic or anti-depressive drugs. Because of the potential effects of acne complications on late psychological events, the patients with these complications such as acne-related scars were not included into the study. Results: The above table shows distribution of Acne was more common among adolescent age group, more commonly in 2nd decade of life with 76.47% percent of prevalence. The above table shows Acne was more common among females than in males with prevalence of 70.59%. This table shows Acne to be common among below poverty line adolescents (79.41%). 10 people (29.41%) had both depression and anxiety. This shows variences in the mood among persons with acne. 32.35% of the people did not have any mood disturbances. 44.12% of the people experienced sadness amounting to depression and 52.94% of them suffered from anxiety. Of the people who were suffering from depression and anxiety 29.41% showed both anxiety as well as depression. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that there is positive correlation between severity of stress and grade of acne. Therapeutic approaches can be adjusted according to stress levels and behavioral intervention like relaxation therapy could be an option in some cases. It is also necessary to take psychosocial factors into account in the therapy of acne patients.
Miraj et al. (Sun,) studied this question.