Temperament-character profiles in patients with alopecia areata

Objective: Alopecia areata (AA) is a chronic immunological skin disorder characterized by round or oval patches of non-scarring hair loss. Current psychosomatic medicine focuses on the triggering of various diseases by stress and on psychoimmunological changes related to psychosocial stress. There has been little research on the personality traits in alopecia areata. The aim of this study is to examine temperament- character profiles and psychopathology of AA patients and to compare the findings with healthy controls. Method: Seventy-three patients who applied to outpatient clinics of dermatology for AA were included. The control group (n=78) was recruited from a nonclinical population. General psychopathology was assessed with the revised version of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R). Personality was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Results: The Global Severity Index (GSI) and depression subscale of the SCL-90-R scores were higher in the AA than in the control group (p<0.05). Total scores of novelty seeking (NS), reward dependence (RD), and self-transcendence (ST) of the patient groups were significantly lower than those of the control groups (p<0.05). When depression and anxiety were considered as covariates, the significant difference which was detected by the t-test still existed between the two groups in terms of NS, RD and ST. Conclusion: It is well known that psychiatric symptoms are common in AA. This study suggests that AA patients have distinctive temperaments such as novelty seeking, reward dependence and self-transcendence dimension compared with healthy controls. AA patients with low NS, RD and ST scores may be prone to depression.