Psychodermatology liaison clinic in India: a working model

Abstract

Literature reports suggest that up to 30% of dermatology patients have associated psychiatric co-morbidity. A psychodermatology liaison (PD) clinic is essential to deal with such patients, which is almost non-existent in the Indian scenario. In order to report the working pattern of such a clinic and to determine its efficacy with the help of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction (SAPS) questionnaires, we investigated patients with suspected psychocutaneous diseases in an open-labelled two-year prospective study. Of 236 patients, 86 had psychiatric co-morbidity, 19 had primary psychiatric disorders, 144 were advised psychological interventions and 98 were prescribed psychotropics. A statistically significant fall in DLQI scores at follow-up indicated improvement in quality of life. SAPS scales demonstrated 87.3% of patients in our PD clinic were satisfied with their management in contrast to 53.8% patients in the normal standard dermatology clinic. Nearly 33% of the patients attending our PD clinic had psychiatric co-morbidity, the commonest being an adjustment disorder.