Quality of life in patients with pemphigus

Introduction. Pemphigus is a group of chronic autoimmune diseases clinically characterized by bullae and erosions on the skin and/or mucous membranes. These symptoms are often accompanied by pain, itching and skin burning. Physical symptoms, chronic nature of the disease and the treatment have a great influence on physical and mental condition of patients.

Objective. To assess the impact of pemphigus on quality of life in patients with pemphigus.

Material and methods. The study comprised 22 patients with pemphigus and 22 volunteers without skin diseases. The quality of life was measured using the SF-36 general health related quality of life questionnaire and two skin-specific scales, SKINDEX-29 and DLQI.

Results. Patients with pemphigus showed a markedly impaired overall quality of life (QoL) compared with control subjects (total SF-36 54.13 vs. 72.00, p = 0.01). The mean scores obtained by the patients were in the DLQI scale 4 ±5.87 and SKINDEX-29 56 ±23.44. The factors influencing decreased QoL are presence of subjective skin lesions and symptoms.

Conclusions. Our data indicate that pemphigus has an important role in patients’ quality of life. Evaluation of quality of life in these patients can be a very useful component of medical consultation.