Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY
Volume 172, Issue 5, Pages 1323-1328Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/bjd.13492
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Funding
- gender equality funds of the Medical Faculty of the University Muenster [14-006]
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Background Although sex and gender are becoming more important in diagnostics and therapy, there is still little knowledge about sex-specific differences in chronic pruritus (CP). Objectives To compare, taking into consideration the characteristics of pruritus, sex-specific differences in psychological symptoms in patients with CP. Methods Sociodemographic data, data on the clinical characteristics of the skin and CP were documented over a 1-year period in all patients attending the Competence Center Chronic Pruritus of the University Hospital Munster for the first time. All patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Student's t-tests for independent study groups and linear regression analyses were applied. Results A total of 619 patients (278 men, 341 women) were included in the analysis. Women were more anxious than men, but were not more depressed. A linear regression analysis indicated that depression and anxiety scores in women were related to the average intensity of pruritus during the previous 4 weeks and to a more generalized pruritus at the beginning of CP; older age in women also correlated with the scores on the depression subscale. Interestingly, the associations were different in men: scores on the depression scale were associated with the diagnosis of CP pruritus with multiple scratch lesions. Conclusions There are sex-specific differences in the relationship between the psychological symptoms and clinical characteristics of CP; higher anxiety scores were achieved by women. Whether psychological symptoms can be reversed when CP and scratch lesions improve is an issue that needs further exploration.
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