Psychiatric disorders in patients attending a dermatology outpatient clinic.
BACKGROUND
Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with skin disorders has been reported.


OBJECTIVE
To find out the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in dermatology outpatients and to investigate the factors that affect the psychiatric symptoms.


METHODS
256 patients attending our dermatology outpatient clinic completed a 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) following their dermatologic examination. A standardized personal interview was performed to establish a psychiatric diagnosis in patients sampled by using a stratified random sampling method.


RESULTS
The prevalence of psychiatric disorders was found to be 33.4% in the study group. The mean of the total GHQ scores of the sample group (n = 256 patients) was 3.656. The duration of the dermatologic complaints, sex of the subjects, localization of the lesions, and dermatologic diagnosis did not affect the total GHQ scores of the patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric comorbidity in 33.4% of the dermatology outpatients indicates the need for considering emotional factors for an effective management of the cutaneous disorders.
Aktan
S
S
Department of Dermatology, Pamukkale University Medical Faculty, Denizli, Turkey. eaktan@yahoo.com
Ozmen
E
E
Sanli
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015897:Comorbidity; D003880:Dermatology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D016353:Self-Examination; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology