Anxiety and Depression Levels in Patients with Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria and Their Relationship with Disease Activity

Objective: Various etiological factors and mechanisms play a role in the development of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), but no specific cause can be found in most cases. Emotional factors are also implicated in the etiology of chronic urticaria, which is considered among psychocutaneous diseases. We aimed to determine the levels of depression and anxiety in patients with CSU and to investigate whether they are related to disease activity.. Materials and Methods: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used to assess depression and anxiety symptoms. Urticaria activity score ( UAS-7) was used to evaluate the disease activity. The patient and control groups were questioned and recorded in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Of the 45 patients included in the study, 75.5% were female, aged between 18 and 61 years with a mean age of 38.3 +/- 12.5 years. When the demographic data of the patient and control groups were compared, no significant difference was found, but mean BDI and BAI scores were higher in the patient group. In addition BDI and BAI scores were higher in patients with higher disease activity. A weak positive correlation was found between UAS-7 scores and BDI and BAI scores (p=0.05, r=0.294, p=0.01, r=0.382, respectively). When BDI and BAI scores were compared with demographic data in the patient group, BAI scores were found to be higher in patients with a family history of psychiatric illness, and BDI scores were found to be higher in patients with angioedema. Conclusion: The chronic nature of the disease may affect the psychological status of the patients. It is still unknown whether the observed psychiatric comorbidities develop as a consequence of chronic urticaria or, on the contrary, constitute a predisposition for chronic urticaria. Therefore, when evaluating patients with chronic urticaria, the psychiatric status should also be assessed.