Quality of life with psoriasis

Date of preparation: December 2024

Quality of life with psoriasis

Because of its visible and physically debilitating impact, psoriasis often takes an emotional toll on those who have it. The specific location in which symptoms appear on the body has been shown to have a direct link to the impact of psoriasis on patients’ quality of life, as visible psoriasis in noticeable areas, such as the scalp, nails and hands, can be highly stigmatising.^1–4 

Patients with psoriasis often experience feelings of stigmatisation, shame, embarrassment, anger or worry because of their condition.^5,6 P

eople living with psoriasis also frequently report sleeping problems, difficulties at work, issues in interacting with family members, disrupted leisure activities and sexual life.^7,8 They also report that the significant impact the disease has on their quality of life is not well understood by physicians.⁹

Figure 1: The impacts of psoriasis on QoL^5,6,10

* Data are from a study that enrolled 102 patients with psoriasis and aimed to estimate the level of stigmatization and explore the relationships between feelings of stigmatization and selected clinical, demographic and psychosocial parameters. 

† Data are from 936 patients, out of 1,721 patients with psoriasis hospitalised during the study period. This study is part of a wide project on clinical, epidemiological, emotional and quality-of-life aspects of psoriasis, the IDI Multipurpose Psoriasis Research on Vital Experiences (IMPROVE) study. 

‡ Data are from a multicentric case-control study that evaluated the possible relationship between family dysfunction and the presence of dermatological conditions with a strong psychosocial component, such as psoriasis (n=37), alopecia (n=15) and atopic dermatitis (n=7). Complete information was collected in 106 patients, 59 cases and 47 controls.

Cumulative life course impairment

The physical, psychological, social and economic burdens of psoriasis can result in a cumulative life course impairment.^11,12

Figure 2: Visualization of the accumulated yearly impact of psoriasis¹²