Assessment of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Acne Vulgaris in Medina: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Purpose

Acne vulgaris is a common dermatological disease in adolescents that show high prevalence rates of anxiety and depression that may lead to consequences that affect quality of life. This study aimed to assess and compare anxiety and depression in patients with acne and a control group and to determine their correlation with other demographic data.

Patients and Methods

This was a case-control study conducted in 2019 for 3 months at the derma-tology department of Ohud Hospital and two other private clinics in the Medina region of Saudi Arabia. For this study, 296 consecutive patients in the age group of 12 to 60 years who were diagnosed as having acne vulgaris were enrolled and matched with a control group. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, including sociodemographic data and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores.

Results

We found no significant differences between the two groups regarding sex, age group, nationality, and educational level, but found a significant difference in marital status (p < 0.001). Most (62.5%) of the acne cases were moderate in severity. The overall anxiety score in the acne group was 7.68 ± 4.90, with a significant difference with the control group (p = 0.031), whereas the anxiety level and depression score showed no significant difference (p = 0.082 and p = 0.656, respectively). Moreover, a strong correlation was found between anxiety and depression in the acne group (r = 0.732, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

A positive correlation was found between the anxiety and depression scores in the patients with acne, which was not related to age group or educational level. However, the anxiety scores of the patients with acne showed a significant relationship with sex.

Keywords:

• GAGS
• HADS questionnaire
• anxiety
• depression
• acne vulgaris
• case control

Abbreviations

GAGS, Global Acne Grading System; HADS, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; SPSS, Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Author Contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; agreed to submit to the current journal; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.