Neurocognition in Patients with Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Objective: Acne vulgaris is often associated with psychological distress, depression, and anxiety disorders that may impair neurocognitive functions such as memory, attention, psychomotor speed, and executive functions, which are also common psychiatric disorders in patients with acne. Methods: We determined cognitive functioning in treatment naive acne patients, without a history of any psychiatric disorder. Cognitive abilities, anxiety, social phobia and depression were assessed in acne vulgaris patients and compared with healthy controls. 66 treatment naive acne patients and 47 controls were recruited. The groups were matched for age, gender, and years spent in education. Results: The acne group demonstrated significant worse performance in cognitive tests assessing attention span, verbal episodic memory, learning, working memory, and phonemic verbal fluency when compared with controls. No group difference was found in cognitive tests assessing attention or executive functions. The acne group also had significantly higher anxiety scores (HADS-A, LSAS). We conducted Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to compare groups on cognitive functioning, controlling for HADS and LSAS scores. The differences between the performances of the groups in cognitive assessment remained significant after covariance. Conclusion: As acne vulgaris is largely a disease of adolescence, a period in which academic performance has great importance, psychiatric consultation including cognitive evaluation seems to be a critical part of its treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)