Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Increases the Risk of Developing Alopecia Areata by Five Fold

Five Fold Higher Risk of Developing Alopecia Areata Among Individuals with PTSD

It is clear that stress can impact the immune system and the subsequent risk of developing various autoimmune disease. An increasing number of research studies are examining how posttraumatic stress disorder impacts the development of various autoimmune diseases.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or series of events or set of circumstances. It has been estimated that PTSD affects up to 1 in 11 people during their entire lifetime. Every year PTSD affects about 3.5 % of the US population.

Dai et al 2021: A New Study Linking PTSD with increased Risk of AA

A new study by Dai et al aimed to investigate the association of PTSD with the risk of autoimmune skin diseases in Taiwan.  

Participants were recruited from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. The authors included approximately 9,800 patients with PTSD and 39,000 matched controls. After adjusting for confounders, the authors found a three fold increased risk of autoimmune skin diseases among the patients with PTSD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 3.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.21-4.07) compared with that among matched controls.

When the authors examined specific skin diseases, there were statistically significant associations found between PTSD and lichen planus (aHR = 31.63, 95% CI = 4.00-249.91), vitiligo (aHR = 16.06, 95% CI = 4.48-57.54), autoimmune bullous diseases (aHR = 9.55, 95% CI = 1.98-45.99), alopecia areata (aHR = 4.77, 95% CI = 2.47-9.20), and psoriasis (aHR = 3.81, 95% CI = 1.90-7.67).

Conclusion

All in all this study supported the notion that that patients with PTSD had an increased risk of developing a variety of autoimmune skin diseases compared with the matched controls.

REFERENCE

Dai Y-X et al. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the Associated Risk of Autoimmune Skin Diseases: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. Psychosom Med. 2021 Apr 1;83(3):212-217. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000920.