Acne gets under your skin
The condition can lead to deep depression at any age: researchers
ACNE can be emotionally devastating at any age, and new research suggests it could even throw you into a deep depression.
“Our research has shown that patients with acne have a 63% increased risk of developing major depressive disorder in their first year after a diagnosis, compared with patients without acne,” said study author Isabelle Vallerand.
“We also found that this risk remained significantly elevated up to five years after the first acne diagnosis,” said Vallerand, an epidemiologist with the department of community health sciences at the University of Calgary in Canada.
“Living with acne may have an impact on an individual’s sense of self-worth,” Vallerand said.
People of all ages, not just the classic pimple-plagued teen who shies away from socialising, were vulnerable to the agony of acne, she noted.
“Our results suggest that the risk of depression among patients with acne does not depend on age,” Vallerand said.
Her team analysed data collected between 1986 and 2012 by The Health Improvement Network, a British primary care database. The data covered more than 134 000 patients with acne, as well as another 1.7 million patients without acne.
Earlier research has already suggested that more than a quarter of all acne sufferers struggle with some mental health issues, the researchers pointed out.
The new study looked at various patient characteristics. After tracking the patients for an average of 15 years, the study found that those with acne faced an 18.5% risk of developing clinical depression, compared with just 12% among those without acne.
However, the elevated risk was only evident throughout the first five years after an acne diagnosis, and the study did not prove that acne itself causes depression risk to rise.
Still, “we were surprised to find that this risk was substantially high. So this highlights that mental health concerns among patients with acne should be taken seriously, and that the treatment for depression among these patients should be started early when needed,” Vallerand said.
One dermatologist said she had witnessed the connection first-hand.
Dr Whitney Bowe, medical director of integrative dermatology, aesthetics and wellness at Advanced Dermatology in New York City, said she saw “the emotional and physical scars of acne every single day” in her practice.
“The devastating effect this disease can have on an individual’s confidence and self-esteem, and the positive transformation that can result from effective therapy, was actually the reason I went into the field of dermatology,” she said.
“Skin issues are not just skin deep,” Bowe added.
“The skin and the brain are intimately connected and, as dermatologists, we need to evaluate the patient in an integrative, comprehensive way if we truly want to determine the best course of treatment,” she said.
“I have been taking a comprehensive approach to my patients for years, inquiring about their stress levels, sleep patterns and coping mechanisms in addition to examining their skin,” Bowe said. “And this study merely provides more evidence in support of this approach.” – The New York Times