Life Event Stress and Coping Strategies in Patients with Alopecia Areata and Androgenetic Alopecia

Choi, Han Gyu; Ro, Sung Wook; Seo, Dong Soo; Seo, Seong Jun; Kim, Myeung Nam; Hong, Chang Kwun; Ro, Byung In; Kee, Baik Seok

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Psychosocial stress and stressful events in life have been reported to be closely related to the onset and acute exacerbation of some dermatologic disorders, such as alopecia areata, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis and atopic dermatitis. However, the nature of the association between stress and dermatologic disorders remains unclear.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to determine the relation of stress and the onset and exacerbation of dermatologic disorders. Furthermore we studied whether the coping strategies to stress are related to dermatologic disorders. METHOD: We examined 30 patients with alopecia areata, 30 patients with androgenetic alopecia who visited Dept. of Dermatology, Chung-Ang University Hospital and a control group of 30 who visited our clinic at the same time for tinea pedis and onychomycosis, which are supposed not to be related to stress. For the evaluation of stress we used questionares of 'Scale of Life Events' and 'Multidimensional Coping Scale'. RESULT: 1) The score of life event stress in the alopecia areata group was significantly higher than that of the normal control group. The score of life event stress in androgenetic alopecia was higher than that of the normal control group with no statistical significance. 2) In the aspect of coping strategies, the alopecia areata group was significantly higher than the normal control group at the passive withdrawal and fatalism, while in the normal control group, emotional pacification, positive comparison and religious seeking tended to be higher than the alopecia areata group. In the androgenetic alopecia group, no significant pathologic coping strategies were found compared with the control.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that the psychosocial stress may play a role in the pathogenesis of alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia. But to clarify the exact role of stress, further studies about biological parameters of physiologic changes to stress are needed in the future.