What patients with psoriasis believe about their condition.

BACKGROUND

Patients' beliefs about their disease have been shown to be of fundamental importance in adjustment to their condition.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated patients' beliefs about their psoriasis and examined the relationship between these beliefs and clinical severity, symptom report, and other clinical and demographic variables.

METHODS

A total of 162 patients with psoriasis (84 male, 78 female) completed the illness perception questionnaire that provides a standardized assessment of beliefs about causes, consequences, chronicity or recurrence, controllability, and symptoms of the condition.

RESULTS

The most commonly reported agents of causation were stress (60.1%) and genetic factors (55.5%)--the latter group being significantly more likely to have a family history of psoriasis (P=.0001). Forty-six percent of patients believed that their behavior could improve or worsen their psoriasis, whereas 32% believed that treatment would be curative. Desquamation and pruritus were experienced "frequently" or "all the time" by 80% and 76% of patients respectively. Overall clinical severity was not associated with any of the beliefs held by patients or with symptom report.

CONCLUSION

The beliefs held and symptoms experienced by patients with psoriasis are not governed by overall clinical severity of the disease.