engleski

Personality Assessment Inventory for detecting psychological burden in psoriasis and melanoma patients – preliminary results

The psychological burden of dermatological illnesses can be substantial and this topic is gaining more scientific and clinical interest. Hereby psoriasis is considered most strongly associated with different psychological and psychiatric disorders. Melanoma, on the other hand, is a highly malignant disease that can significantly affect a person’s psychological status, contributing to anxiety, depression and PTSD. Considering these previous findings, this study aimed to explore the usefulness of the Personality Assessment Inventory for detecting psychological burden in psoriasis and melanoma patients, and to compare these groups of common dermatological patients. We present the preliminary results of an ongoing study that included 15 psoriasis and 9 melanoma patients. The inclusion criteria were severe psoriasis treated with biological medications (PSA >10, DLQ I> 10, BSI > 10), and a melanoma with 1-3.5 mm in size. Patients suffering from verified psychiatric illness, diabetes, autoimmune, severe cardiovascular and other malignant diseases were excluded. All participants filled out the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), which is self-report multiple-scale inventory assessing personality functioning and psychological disorders. It consist of 344 questions answered on a 4-point Liker scale, and provides a profile on 22 non- overlapping scales, including clinical, treatment and interpersonal scales. Statistical analyses were conducted in SPSS, and differences between the groups of psoriasis and melanoma patients were tested using a one-way ANOVA. Significant differences were found on the somatic complains scale (F=4.131, p=.05), including the health concerns subscale (F=6.880, p=.02). The participants did not differ in regards to age and education. When compared to melanoma, patients with psoriasis reported they were more focused on preoccupation with health matters and somatic complains, and more strongly believed they are in bad health, meaning that numerous health related issues disturb their everyday functioning. Interestingly, no particular psychological disorders were found in melanoma patients. These results are in line with other findings that show how chronic and mostly visible dermatological illnesses, such as psoriasis, hold a greater psychological burden then illnesses which are objectively more threatening, such as melanoma. The greatest limitation of these results is the current small sample size, making it sensitive to outliers. Nevertheless, these results point that the PAI might be useful for an in-depth assessment of personality functioning and psychological disorders in psoriasis and melanoma patients, and can contribute to a better understanding of the psychological burden in dermatological illness.

psoriasis, melanoma, personality assessment

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