A US study showed that adults with atopic dermatitis (AD) had a higher burden of disease than those with other chronic diseases. Even mild dermatitis can negatively affect quality of life (QoL), increasing risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Persistent itching and skin pain can disrupt sleep, leading to poor work or study performance. In moderate to severe disease, oozing, crusting lesions can lead to stigmatisation social isolation. More adults are affected than previously thought, with some 16.5 million adults in the US estimated to have AD.
In a study of 1278 patients using the US web-based Growth from Knowledge (GfK) panel, 60.1% had mild disease, 28.9% had moderate AD, and 11% had severe AD. Patients with more severe disease had higher scores on the dermatology life quality index and on the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) when compared with controls.
This indicates “a worse impact on quality of life and an increased likelihood of anxiety or depression,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “Our study confirms the high prevalence and disease burden of atopic dermatitis in this population.”
Quality of life threatened
A pair of studies in patients from the GfK panel reinforce these findings. The first, with 602 patients, showed that AD carried a “profound” disease burden, based on a comparison of patient-oriented AD measures between patients with and without AD. Those with moderate and severe AD had lower mean mental health scores compared with those who had mild disease, and lower QoL compared with patients with other chronic disorders.
“We recommend that clinicians incorporate QoL assessments in clinical practice to determine disease burden, identify patients requiring step-up treatment of their skin disease, and potentially screen for patients with mental health disturbance,” wrote Jonathan I Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, of George Washington University, and colleagues in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
A subsequent study in 2137 patients from the GfK Knowledge Panel found that 40% of patients with AD had a higher prevalence of anxiety or depression in the previous 12 months compared with 17.5% of adults without AD. The researchers concluded that anxiety and depression were driven primarily by disease severity, and were heavily underdiagnosed.
Breaking the ‘vicious cycle’
AD can be life-threatening in some patients, warned the authors of a systematic review and meta-analysis of AD studies. The combination of pruritus, visible skin lesions, social isolation, depression, and anxiety likely sets up a “vicious cycle,” according to the authors.
This “may result in suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and even completed suicide,” they reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
The investigators found a positive and significant association between AD in adulthood and depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, regardless of where the patients lived. And while only a few studies examined the risk of completed suicide, the majority showed a positive association, the authors said. A positive association between AD and depression in children was also identified.
They advised that “depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation should be considered by doctors when treating patients with AD,” adding: “Because AD disease improvement appears to reduce these risks, this should be a priority.”
Better systemic and topical AD therapies are improving the QoL of patients. “It is important to recognise that improvement of AD often results in improvements in symptoms of depression and anxiety, as these mental health symptoms are caused or worsened by the AD,” Dr Silverberg told MedPage Today. “We already have data for dupilumab and the JAK inhibitors that show improvements of HADS scores and other patient-reported outcome measures of mental health.”
Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle said, “relatively recent literature suggests screening for depression is particularly important for kids with AD, especially those with severe disease.”
AD affects children of all ages, including the very young, and more than 50% of children with AD are diagnosed by age 1 year, he noted.”Dupilumab has been the most effective new available therapy to date by far,” Dr Sidbury told MedPage Today. “Pipeline drugs, particularly the JAK inhibitors like upadacitinib show tremendous promise.”
Source: MedPage Today
