Psychological profile of chronic skin disease

Pages: 237-245
Parmeet Kaur Soni and Tilottama Mukherjee (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)

Psoriasis and Vitiligo are not just dermatological conditions. They are chronic skin diseases, which have far reaching effects on the overall quality of life of the individuals suffering from it. The present study throws light on some of the psychological impact caused by these skin conditions. In this study a group of skin disease free individuals (Group-I) are compared with psoriasis (Group-II) and Vitiligo (Group-III) sufferers using Cognitive Distortions Scale (Briere, 1997), The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988b;The Dean’s Alienation Scale (Dean, 1961). The two skin conditions (Group II and III) are also compared to see the difference, if any, in their psychological profile. Results indicate that there exists a significant difference amongst the three groups with respect to Cognitive Distortions dimensions, Alienation dimensions of powerlessness and normlessness and Affect dimensions of positive and negative affect.