Comparing quality of life, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and associated factors in vitiligo and alopecia areata patients

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: Vitiligo and alopecia areata (AA) are two autoimmune skin diseases that affect patients' quality of life (QoL) and give rise to psychosocial complications, such as depression, negative self-image, less joyful social engagements, and low self-esteem. These two disorders have common and uncommon characteristics. Therefore, in this study, we tried to evaluate the similarities and differences in the psychological parameters including quality of life, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression levels between, vitiligo and AA patients. Materials and Methods: Patients with either vitiligo or AA visiting the outpatient dermatology clinic from November 2017 to December 2020 have been included in this study. Persian versions of three questionnaires including the dermatology life quality index (DLQI), hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), have been used to assess the QoL, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression levels in patients. Results: In total, 188 patients, including 94 (50%) cases of AA and 94 (50%) patients with vitiligo, met the criteria. In AA patients, a significantly higher DLQI score was found (p-value = 0.002) compared to the vitiligo cases, which means a better QoL in vitiligo patients. Additionally, AA patients had higher scores of anxiety (P-value<0.001) and depression (p-Value<0.001). However, sleep disturbance (64.9% of AA patients vs. 59.3% of vitiligo patients; p-Value = 0.4888) was not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusions: Our data showed lower QoL and higher levels of anxiety and depression in AA patients compared to vitiligo cases, but no difference was seen in sleep disturbance in the PSQI-P score.