What do patients with psoriasis think about the causes of their disease and use for psoriasis?

Abstract

There are few reports about the beliefs of psoriasis patients related to their disorder and therapy modalities except for the medical ones. We aimed to investigate the beliefs of psoriasis patients about their disorders, where they had attended therapies unrelated to dermatologists and what modality of unconventional therapies they used for psoriasis in Turkey. The study was performed on 141 psoriasis patients. The age, sex, education status and the number of visits to the dermatology clinics were recorded. How the patients decided to visit the dermatology clinic (themselves, directed by others), where they attended for treatment of psoriasis outside of the dermatologist, what they think about the causes of their disease and what they used for treatment of psoriasis were asked. The mean age of the patients was <TEX>$33.44{\pm}15.13$</TEX> years. The patients whose ages were over 30 years significantly more went to dermatology clinics. 68.1% of the patients attended the dermatology clinic based on the individual decision, 18.4% were directed by family members and 5.7% by friends. 45.4% of the patients believed that stress was the cause of their disease. 54.6% of the patients had used at least one type of unconventional therapy for psoriasis. The most frequently used unconventional therapy forms were herbal (24.1%) and spiritual therapies (22%). One conclusion is psoriasis patients need education about their diseases. Dermatologists should have information about the tendencies of the patients and approach the patients with sensitivity and empathy and give objective knowledge about psoriasis.