Study to examine correlation between lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and alopecia areata

Abstract

Alopecia areata is commonly occurring autoimmune hair condition presenting as well demarcated patches of hair loss. Majority of existing literature examines relation of acute stressful events to onset of alopecia areata. We examined correlation of lifetime prevalence of traumatic events to occurrence of alopecia areata. Structured questionnaire called presumptive lifetime stressful event score was administered to clinically diagnosed cases of alopecia areata visiting tertiary care centre. Financial traumatic events were statistically more significantly associated with male sex (p value of 0.04884). Educational traumatic events were more common in younger age group i.e., <30 years of age (p value 0.00044). Familial traumatic events (p value 0.03846) as well as lifestyle changes (p value 0.04338) were more common in >30 years. It was observed that majority of category shows educational stress (24%), followed by financial stress. (22%).12 patients of 50 (24%) had recurrent disease with mean disease duration of 12 months and average number of traumatic events to be 1.41 while those with single episode (N=38) had average disease duration to be 5.94 months and experienced mean 1.36 traumatic events