Psoriasis and depression

Summary

Psoriasis is a common skin disease affecting approximately 5‐10 percent of people in the Nordic countries, and more than 125 million people worldwide. The disease has been associated with low treatment adherence, meaning people don't stick with their treatment, and unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption, decreased physical activity) and, in turn, cardiometabolic disease. Patients with psoriasis have a higher frequency of depression, but little is known about whether this is due to psoriasis itself, or whether this is predominantly due to patients' comorbidities, meaning the diseases they suffer alongside their psoriasis. This study therefore examined the risk of depression in 247,755 patients with psoriasis compared with the general population. Using registry data from Denmark, this study found a slightly increased risk of developing depression in patients with psoriasis, independent of other risk factors such as comorbidity. Overall, the risk was modest, but a somewhat higher risk was seen in those people requiring a stronger type of treatment called biologic therapy, i.e. those with more severe psoriasis, and especially among patients aged 40 to 50 years. Notably, the highest occurrence of depression was among people with a prior history of depression, suggesting that these patients may represent a particularly vulnerable group in which increased awareness may be needed. Collectively, these results may help clinicians identify which patients are at particularly high risk of depression in whom pre‐emptive measures may be needed to reduce the future risk of depression.

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