A perspective study of cutaneous manifestations in primary psychiatric disorders in a tertiary care hospital

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous disorders are frequently seen in psychiatric patients. This may be attributed to the common ectodermal origin of skin and neurons. There is a paucity of data on cutaneous comorbidity in primary psychiatric disorders. AIMS: The aim of this study is to determine the pattern of cutaneous manifestations in patients with primary psychiatric disorders SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a hospital-based observational study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 210 patients suffering from various psychiatric disorders along with associated skin disease were recruited. Patients with an age <18 years and with history of substance abuse were excluded from this study. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: IBM SPSS Statistics, version 22 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 314 cutaneous manifestations were observed in the psychiatric patients recruited in this study. Among the patients surveyed, 88 patients were male (41.9%) and the remaining 122 patients (58.1%) were female. Primary psychiatric conditions observed were schizophrenia (25.7%), major depressive disorder (23.8%), bipolar mood disorder (23.3%), and psychosis not otherwise specified (11.9%). A majority (63.06%) of the cutaneous manifestations were noninfective dermatoses, and the rest (36.94%) were infective dermatoses. Fungal skin infections and eczema were seen in 33.8% and 24.8% of the cases, respectively. Seborrheic dermatitis (16.2%) was the most common eczema encountered. Nearly 75.2% of cases were found to have an insight into their skin problems. The common medical comorbidities seen in our patients were diabetes mellitus and hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, cutaneous manifestations were quite common in primary psychiatric disorders. A collaborative approach, between psychiatry and dermatology, should be an integral part of management in such cases.