Journal of Dermatology and Dermatologic Diseases

Piebaldism, Waardenburg syndrome and Cross-McKusick-Breen syndrome are rare disorders characterized by congenital skin and hair hypopigmentation. Piebaldism is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern and Waardenburg syndrome is mostly transmitted in an autosomal dominant manner. These diseases are caused by abnormal migration of melanoblasts from the neuroectoderm into the skin. Cross-McKusick-Breen syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder in which the epidermal melanocyte numbers are normal, but most melanosomes are in stage II or III and are probably characterized by defective melanosomal transfer. This publication describes the clinical and genetic characteristics of the three selected genodermatoses. Although rare and phenotypically diverse, the study of these diseases has yielded significant knowledge on the genes that regulate the migration of melanocytes and the mechanisms that control skin, hair and eye pigmentation.

Background: Vitiligo is associated with various psychiatric comorbidities. Various studies have showed prevalence ranging from 34% to 75%. Vitiligo can greatly affect the quality of life of patients and psychiatric comorbidities can further worsen it. Thus there is need to recognise psychiatric comorbidities and treat them in these patients.
Aims: The aims of our study were to determine the psychiatric morbidity and the Quality of Life (QOL) in patients suffering from vitiligo and to determine the factors related with psychiatric morbidity and those affecting the QOL in these patients.
Methods: 50 patients of age range 18 – 65 years with disease duration of 1-26 years attending the vitiligo clinic in dermatology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital were included and 50 persons with no dermatological or diagnosed psychiatric illness accompanying them served as control group. They were diagnosed for psychiatric disorders as per DSM-IV TR, if present. Scales used were Body Surface Area (BSA), WHO-Quality of Life (WHO-QOL) scale, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Hamilton rating scales for Anxiety and Depression (HAM-A and HAM-D).
Results: 30% patients in vitiligo group suffered from psychiatric disorder, depression was present in 20% of patients and 8% had anxiety disorders. QOL scores had negative correlation with BSA, GHQ, HAM-A and HAM-D scores and they were statistically significant.
Conclusions: Thus it was found that vitiligo patients had more psychiatric comorbidities as compared to control group and it had bearing on their quality of life too.