Psoriasis linked with emotion

A report in the American Journal of preventative medicine discuses the different
People with psoriasis who had significantly more “mental distress” and were about 1.5 times more likely to report mild to severe depression than those without the disease. But these mood problems may go deeper than simply being unhappy about having an unsightly skin disease, says Dr. Suzanne Olbricht, as associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

“Twenty years ago, we thought of psoriasis as a skin disease that sometimes affected the joints. But in the last five years or so, it’s become very apparent that psoriasis is an inflammatory condition,” says Dr. Olbricht. People with psoriasis are more likely to have other conditions linked to inflammation, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. “If you have a disease that creates enough inflammation that it’s affecting your heart, it’s also very hard for your brain to function well,” says Dr. Olbricht. The depression that people with psoriasis often experience is not just a consequence of disliking how they look, she believes.

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