Background: Leukoderma is an acquired disease of pigmentation which is presented by depigmented areas of different shape and sizes on the skin. In various researches it was reported that these defects in melanocytes occurred due to autoimmune pathway or the complex causation of oxidative stress and genetics.
Material & Methods: In the present cross‑sectional prospective study 100 patients who were diagnosed with Leukoderma and controls who were not having depigmentation of skin and without any known clinical disease were enrolled for present study by simple random sampling. Written informed consent was taken from each study participant. Clearance from institutional ethical committee was also taken prior to the study.
Results: The prevalence of psychiatric illness among leukoderma group was 22% and among 78% patients we did not found any psychiatric illness. The most common symptom was depression which was present among 22% of patients with Leukoderma and 18% patients with Leukoderma had anxiety symptoms. Among the control group depression was present in 5 % subjects and anxiety symptoms were present in 7% of subjects. The mean WHO-Quality of life scores was low among Leukoderma group in relation to the control group (p value <0.05). On correlation with psychiatric illness, observations were statistically non-significant (p > 0.05) with HAMA-A and HAMA- D. The observations were statistically significant (p < 0.05) with GHQ total and BSA score.
Conclusion: Higher prevalence of psychitric morbidity among patients with leukoderma and it was found associated with duration of disease and BSA scores. The most common symptom was depression which was followed by anxiety symptoms.
Key words: Leukoderma, psychiatric illness, anxiety, depression.
