Emily Strouphauer, BSA: How Clinicians Can Promote Mental Health in Pediatric Psoriasis Patients

In a segment of her interview with HCPLive, Emily Strouphauer, BSA, from the School of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, spoke about her team’s research into mental health in pediatric psoriasis patients.

Her team’s research involved a literature review, in which an association was identified between pediatric psoriasis and mental health struggles, although a causal link in one direction or another remained unidentified.

Strouphauer spoke on elements of her team’s research into the effect of psoriasis on younger patients’ mental health that were particularly interesting.

“I expected the strength or I suppose the number of studies reflecting the relationships between psoriasis anxiety, as well as psoriasis and depression to be similar,” she said. “And they are, but we found that the relationship between psoriasis and depression was unanimously significant amongst all the studies, whereas only about I think four of the seven studies that looked at the relationship between anxiety and psoriasis found significance in the positive relationship.”

Strouphauer explained that much of what was uncovered in the study was expected, however, given the well-documented effects of childhood alienation, due to conditions like psoriasis, on mental health.

Later in the discussion, she explained her views on the ways in which clinicians may respond to younger psoriasis patients struggling with depression or anxiety. She explained that clinicians could take “extra care to screen for patients that may be presenting with these signs and offer help in the best way that you can.”

“And, I also think it's really important to let kids know that having psoriasis isn't their fault,” she said. “I think just saying that, to take some of the burden and guilt away from them, and it can just really be comforting hearing that from a healthcare professional.”

To learn more about her team’s findings, view the interview segment above.