Health related quality of life (HRQL) is the term used to assess the degree of suffering a particular disease bestows upon a patient. For many years psoriasis sufferers have been told to 'learn to live with it' and there are many reports of patients feeling unsupported and neglected by their doctors. Patients feel that their condition is trivialised, simply because it is non life-threatening and that it does not tend to cause physical distress or pain.

However, researchers at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Westwood-Squibb Center in the US have revealed that patients diagnosed with psoriasis suffer to the same degree as patients diagnosed with other chronic ailments.

The researchers investigated the HQRL of psoriasis sufferers and compared their scores against sufferers of other chronic diseases. 317 patients all diagnosed with a range of chronic conditions participated in the study which found that patients with psoriasis reported a reduction in their physical and mental function which was equivalent to that seen in cancer, arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and depression.

The report reveals that the impact of psoriasis on a patients quality of life (HRQL) is similar to that of other major medical diseases and that psoriasis should, therefore, not be trivialised. It is clear from the report that psoriasis patients need the same degree of support given to patients suffering from other chronic diseases.

return to top