Rosacea Review - Newsletter of the National Rosacea SocietyRosacea Review - Newsletter of the National Rosacea Society

psychological effects

Survey Shows Positive Impact Of Clear Skin

A recent National Rosacea Society (NRS) survey found that highly successful medical treatment for rosacea often has a major positive impact on patients’ lives.

In the survey of 1,044 rosacea patients, around 76 percent of all respondents saw at least some improvement in their skin after receiving treatment. Among those patients, 40 percent said that treatment had improved their psychological well-being, 35 percent said their social well-being had improved, and 31 percent saw improvement in their occupational well-being.

Stress Management Can Play Key Role in Rosacea Control

Emotional stress can be difficult to define. It’s an invisible, immeasurable force that can exist in nearly every facet of our day-to-day lives, even if we are not aware of it. Living in a state of stress can impact both mental and physical health – causing muscle tension, making the heart and lungs to work harder, upsetting digestion and releasing hormones that affect the brain and reproductive systems. 

Nerve Symptoms May Present New Subset

Individuals with prominent neurologic symptoms might be considered a subset of rosacea, according to a report by Dr. Tiffany Scharschmidt and colleagues at the department of dermatology, University of California-San Francisco.1

In their study of 14 rosacea patients, the researchers found that a high percentage had neurologic (43 percent) or neuropsychiatric (50 percent) conditions such as headaches, depression, essential tremor and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Turn the Tables on Awkward Questions

Insensitive questions about facial appearance can be a double whammy for rosacea sufferers — the questions may not only cause embarrassment, but can lead to stress that may make the symptoms even worse. Fortunately, however, rosacea patients can usually bring this potentially destructive cycle to a halt by reacting positively, according to psychologists familiar with dermatological disorders.

Psychologist Advises Managing Disease Can Break Cycle of Stress

Conspicuous disorders like rosacea can involve so many other areas of life that even a mild case can be severely distressing, said Richard G. Fried, M.D., clinical psychologist and director of Yardley Dermatology Associates, at the recent meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. But giving patients control over their disease can break the self-destructive cycle and help keep flare-ups at bay.

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