Androgenetic alopecia: stress of discovery.
The psychological problems of men in the initial stages of alopecia androgenetica (hereditary male hair loss) have seldom been studied. We evaluated two groups of 80 men with alopecia androgenetica in Stages II to IV, indicating the amount of hair loss (overall N=160; for Group I: M=48 yr., SD=18.2; for Group II: M=50 yr., SD=18.0) who visited a dermatology clinic for benign dermatological complaints but not for hair loss, by questionnaires and interview, retrospectively. As predicted, hair problems were reported to be significantly greater overall at the moment of discovery of hair loss than later. About half of the men reported feeling annoyed to very annoyed about the discovery of hair loss. For those patients, provision of information by internet might facilitate a visit to the dermatologist.
Passchier
Jan
J
Department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, NIHES Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands. j.passchier@erasmusmc.nl
Erdman
Jeroen
J
Hammiche
Fatima
F
Erdman
Ruud A M
RA