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.

Patients and 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.