Results from survey of psoriasis patients don't look good.

[Fred]

I'm not sure if this is a general thing, but whenever I visit my Dermatologist, I have to fill in a survey commenting on how much my Psoriasis had affected different situations over the past week.  I can't think of a time where the answers were looked at while I was at the appointment which defeats the purpose to me.

That'll be the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI)

Yeah that's the one!

I don't tend to do one now as I always score zero. But if they do decide to do it, it's done at the appointment and they ask me the questions as opposed to getting me to fill it out.

Like you say it's a bit pointless getting you to fill it in but they don't look at it.

[Krissie_Wright]

Hi all,

Just been reading through this thread and wanted to add my tuppence.

I resigned myself to never achieving completely clear skin decades ago... This was when I started reading up on the genetic and autoimmune casues for the condition (I refuse to call it a disease because to me a disease is something you can catch) and realised that without gene therapy being developed there would never be a 100% cure for it. All medications and treatments do is to treat the symptoms and not the underlying cause. So that part of the study doesn't surprise me.

As for depression... Well, I've often wondered about that.. Having had P since I was 4 I didn't really have any issues with depression because to me my task was to educate people as much as I could to to give them an understanding of what P was. I have, however, noticed a trend in those developing P in later life struggling to cope and developing mental health issues as a result (this is from other forums where you are smacked down for suggesting you bare all - I didn't stay long after that) and I can understand it. Often people isolate themselved due to embarrassment at the skaly, flakiness of their skin and we all know the negative impact social isolation canhave on your mental health.

The study munbers are surprisingly low when we consider the numbers of p patients worldwide, and I can't help but wonder if those figures would be clearer had they asked every derm to get their patients to complete the survey.

Krissie

[Fred]

I can't help but wonder if those figures would be clearer had they asked every derm to get their patients to complete the survey.

Krissie

Hello Krissie, good to see you again.

Yes you are right. To get an accurate picture the data has to come from questions put to us the patients at our visit to the dermatologist/doctor.

[AmandaL]

So I had a dermatology appointment this morning and the majority of questions ask "has psoriasis affected *insert different activities* in the past week?", but the one regarding whether you had suffered depression or anxiety within the past week did not ask whether this had been affected by Psoriasis, it was just a general question. I had answered yes as this was the truth (but nothing to do with psoriasis), but my dermatologist didn't even read through my answers. I was only asked if I had completed the survey?

[Fred]

So I had a dermatology appointment this morning and the majority of questions ask "has psoriasis affected *insert different activities* in the past week?", but the one regarding whether you had suffered depression or anxiety within the past week did not ask whether this had been affected by Psoriasis, it was just a general question.  I had answered yes as this was the truth (but nothing to do with psoriasis), but my dermatologist didn't even read through my answers.  I was only asked if I had completed the survey?

Next time shove it in front of his/her face and if they at least don't glance over it, ask why you had to fill it in.

[jiml]

So I had a dermatology appointment this morning and the majority of questions ask "has psoriasis affected *insert different activities* in the past week?", but the one regarding whether you had suffered depression or anxiety within the past week did not ask whether this had been affected by Psoriasis, it was just a general question.  I had answered yes as this was the truth (but nothing to do with psoriasis), but my dermatologist didn't even read through my answers.  I was only asked if I had completed the survey?

Next time shove it in front of his/her face and if they at least don't glance over it, ask why you had to fill it in.

Agreed    they should look and question any issues that it highlights ..   not just file it away

[Turnedlight]

I still wonder if in fact depression in a psoriasis sufferer always happens because of the problems sufferers often have with self esteem, rejection, pain, lack of sleep etc or if it's possible the same biological action that causes psoriasis also does something physically to the brain and could possibly cause mental health problems this way. I have read some interesting things about inflammation and the way it can affect your brain as well.

However, it's very hard to actually discuss this, since if you mention psoriasis and depression in the same sentence, you find psoriasis is always thought of as the cause of the depression, not a co-morbidity. The only time psoriasis really brought me down was when my skin went mad and I couldn't sleep.

I also found on Humira that my mood was really good and definitely it wasn't down to the drug making me look better because it sadly had no effect on my skin. I think the inflammation could be everywhere in the body, and affecting every part of us.

Krissie - why did you get smacked down for your suggestion? I agree with baring all if you want to, I don't cover up any more and I forget what I look like (until I see a mirror that is!) and I can't see what's wrong with that at all..