Some psychological characteristics of children and adolescents with vitiligo: Our results

Abstract

Introduction. Numerous studies have characterized patients with chronic skin disease as psychologically vulnerable, mainly due to the fact that their condition affects their social relations and all other aspects of life. The purpose of this work was to determine whether there are significant differences in the level of anxiety, severity of depressive symptoms, and presence of stressful life events between adolescent patients with vitiligo and healthy peers. Material and methods. 33 patients with vitiligo aged 10-15 years, and a control group of 60 healthy subjects of the same age, were included in this prospective study. A clinical examination was performed to determine the clinical types of vitiligo, estimate depressive symptoms using the Birleson Depression Scale, and anxiety was evaluated by the Spielberger's scale (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). For determination of the frequency of stressful events, the Risk Scale was used. Results. Adolescents with vitiligo did not show more pronounced signs of anxiety or depression than healthy subjects; differences were not apparent in the Risk Scale either, considering stressful events. Discussion and conclusion. The lack of differences between the two examined groups might be due to prepubertal age of the majority of subjects. 63.63% of all children included in this study were in the prepubertal age (10-12 years), which is the period when they are still not focused on their own body and changes to physical appearance. It is possible that early onset of vitiligo is a "protective factor", enabling the child to attain compensatory mechanisms to solve the problem of vitiligo through various interests and aspirations, which do not depend on physical appearance. .