title: Quality of life and psychosocial impact of scarring and non-scarring alopecia in women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alopecia is a common dermatological condition with mostly cosmetic consequences that, nevertheless, has significant psychological and psychosocial impact.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of alopecia on quality of life and certain psychological domains and to compare it between scarring and non-scarring alopecia in Greek adult women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-four women, aged 18-70 years, with scarring (n = 19) or non-scarring alopecia (n = 25) were recruited. All patients were evaluated by Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) and UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women with scarring alopecia had higher scores in DLQI, HADS and UCLA- LS and lower scores in RSES, compared to women with non-scarring alopecia. A statistically significant difference between the two groups was documented for DLQI (p = 0.0067), HADS (p = 0.0008), and HADS-Anxiety (HADS-A) (p < 0.05) and HADS-Depression (HADS-D) (p < 0.01) subscales.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The psychological burden is heavier and quality of life is more severely impaired among women with scarring alopecia compared with non-scarring alopecia, probably depicting the poorer prognosis of the former.
authors.affiliation: 2nd Department of Dermatology and Venereology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, "Attikon" General University Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandros C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Katoulis
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.forename: Aikaterini I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Liakou
authors.forename: Anargyros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kouris
authors.forename: Panagiota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Korkoliakou
authors.forename: Eythymia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kaloudi
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanelleas
authors.forename: Charalabos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rigopoulos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000505:Alopecia / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008132:Loneliness; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012934:Social Isolation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult