Francesca Sampogna, Luca Fania, Simona Mastroeni, Roberta Fusari, Monica Napolitano, Davide Ciccone, Cinzia Mazzanti, Sabatino Pallotta, Annarita Panebianco, Damiano Abeni
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-3647

Depression is frequent in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. However, its relationship with quality of life and clinical severity needs further investigation. In this cross-sectional study, 341 adult, consecutive patients with hidradenitis suppurativa completed the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), which has been shown to be able to identify cases of major depressive disorder in dermatological patients. The frequency of depression in hidradenitis suppurativa patients was 29.0%. In patients with depression, severity (International Hidradenitis Suppurativa Severity Score System (IHS4)), quality of life (Skindex-17; Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI)), and health status (36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)) were significantly worse compared with patients with no depression. The highest linear correlation was observed between GHQ-12 and the psychosocial scale of the Skindex-17 and the SF-36 mental scale. In contrast, correlation between GHQ-12 and clinical severity was poor. Depression is an important comorbidity in hidradenitis suppurativa, which is strongly associated with impairment in quality of life, but not linearly correlated with clinical severity.

In this study of 341 patients with hidradenitis suppurativa, a prevalence of depression of 29% was observed. While there was a linear correlation between depression and quality of life or health status measures, this correlation was not observed with clinical severity. This confirms that clinical severity measures, which are based mainly on clinical signs, do not necessarily correspond to the burden that the disease has on the patient. In fact, hidradenitis suppurativa is a condition with a strong psychosocial impact even at a low level of clinical severity.