An Overview on the Epidemiology, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Vitiligo: A Review

Abstract

Vitiligo is one of the complex diseases that has existed during the entire history of humanity and so far we have not fully understood it, serval theories have been proposed most of them suggest strong linkage between deficiencies in certain genes and the disease, refereeing that the disease has strong genetic factor that plays a rule in triggering the disease, and the epidemiology studies confirms also that theory due to higher incidence in people who have siblings but this theory does not fully unlocks the full causes of the disease as it seems also to have strong environmental triggers. One of the biggest problem about the disease and the QoL is not the disease lifestyle itself but rather the social and psychological effects of the disease and the social acceptance impact, because it affects the appearance of its patients and thus affects their social acceptance leading to some serious psychological and depressive disorders, and that effects differs from society to another and by different categories, that’s why psychological follow up and treatment is critical part of the overall treatment. In this review, we overview recent updates in epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment of vitiligo.