Some psychological characteristics of children and adolescents with vitiligo: Our results

Abstract

The lack of differences between the two examined groups might be due to prepubertal age of the majority of subjects. 63.63% of all children included in this study were in the prepubertal age (10-12 years), which is the period when they are still not focused on their own body and changes to physical appearance. It is possible that early onset of vitiligo is a "protective factor", enabling the child to attain compensatory mechanisms to solve the problem of vitiligo through various interests and aspirations, which do not depend on physical appearance.

The Psychosocial Aspects of Vitiligo: A Focus on Stress Involvement in Children with Vitiligo

“…Studies that reported vitiligo is more common in females: India (Handa &Dogra, 2003, Jaisankar et al, 1992, Kuwait (Nanda et al, 1999), Croatia (Prcic et al, 2006), China (Lin et al, 2011), differed from our data. The mean age (11 years old) of our cohort was higher than other reports (between 6.2 years to 9 years) (Handa & Dogra, 2003, Hu et al, 2006, Nanda et al, 1999, Prcic et al, 2006. A family history of vitiligo (about 20%) was comparable to those of Akrem's (18%) (Akrem et al, 2008), but higher than of Lin's (Lin et al, 2011) (13.5%).…”

“…Stres s seemed to a ppear m ore often in segmental vitiligo 14 . However, there are also reports that did not find a significant correlation of childhood vitiligo with the presence of stressful events (Prcic et al, 2006). Based on this data, periods of adjustment to new conditions, such as the beginning of education (school or kindergarten), being an only child, or having separated parents (particularly in boys) could be considered special situations in which children with vitiligo need more support and require the intervention of families, teachers and doctors.…”

“…Stress is cited in 62-65% of patients (Firooz et al, 2004, Manolache & Benea 2007. Patients with vitiligo had a significant number of stressful events in the year preceding the onset of the disease as compared to controls (Prcic et al, 2006). In Agarwal's study (Agarwal, 1998), half of the patients with vitiligo reported stressful events before disease onset.…”

“…One study showed children with vitiligo were more depressed than non-affected children (Bilgic et al, 2010). Another study found no differences between children and adolescents with vitiligo and healthy subjects in regards to anxiety and depression (Prcic et al, 2006). Vitiligo patients who cope well with their condition have higher self-esteem than individuals without the disorder.…”

“…There are few reports of the psychosocial impact of vitiligo on children and adolescents although vitiligo can have a serious impact on their lives. This ranges from vitiligo having no correlation with stress (Prcic et al, 2006) to involvement of stressful events in 50% of cases (Barisic-Drusko & Rucevic, 2004). Psychological vulnerability can also influence the onset and evolution of psychosomatic dermatoses, alongside the presence of stressful events.…”