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Stress and skin disease quality of life: the moderating role of anxiety sensitivity social concerns
Author(s) -
Dixon L.J.,
Witcraft S.M.,
McCowan N.K.,
Brodell R.T.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.304
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1365-2133
pISSN - 0007-0963
DOI - 10.1111/bjd.16513
Subject(s) - disease , anxiety , quality of life (healthcare) , everyday life , psychology , medicine , clinical psychology , social stress , notice , affect (linguistics) , psychiatry , psychotherapist , pathology , communication , political science , law
Summary The term ‘stress’ is used to describe when a person feels tense or under pressure. An interesting fact is that stress can make some skin diseases worse, and can even trigger some skin diseases. This can lead to a vicious circle for patients, as their skin disease causes more stress, which then in turn worsens the symptoms, and so on. Little is known about psychological risk factors that play a part in this link between stress and skin disease, but it is thought that one relevant factor is ‘anxiety sensitivity (AS) social concerns’. This is when a person is fearful of anxiety‐related sensations (e.g. sweating, flushing) because they are worried about social consequences (the reactions of other people e.g., rejection or humiliation). Thus the person is worried about the visible signs of their anxiety. In this study from the U.S., 237 people with skin disease symptoms completed questionnaires assessing stress, AS social concerns, skin disease quality of life, and the severity of their skin symptoms. The study found that people with high AS social concerns are more likely to notice and fear the social repercussions of (e.g. how other people react to) physical signs caused by stress or skin disease, thereby worsening the impact of skin disease on their emotional wellbeing and their everyday life. However, people with high AS social concern did not report worse quality of life relating to the physical symptoms of their skin disorder, suggesting that stress was not linked to symptom severity.