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Living with atopic dermatitis: what it is and how the pandemic impacted the skin of patients

2021-09-14T09:34:46.072Z


Those who suffer from this disease saw their conditions worsened. The quarantine blows, in the first person.


Ludmila moscato

09/14/2021 6:01 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • Good Life

Updated 9/14/2021 6:01 AM

The condition of patients with atopic dermatitis

worsened in a pandemic

: half of them not only felt more itchy, but slept less, gained weight, had higher levels of stress and discontinued their treatments.

This is clear from the data of a survey with

more than 500 participants

carried out by two patient organizations: the Argentine Atopic Dermatitis Association (ADAR) and the Civil Association for Psoriasis Patients (AEPSO), which became known within the framework of World Atopic Dermatitis Day.

Atopic dermatitis is a

chronic inflammatory disease

that affects the skin.

Atopic diseases are alterations in the response of the defenses in different organs, such as skin, lungs, nose, eyes and digestive system, all those that have contact with the outside.

Although there are no official data regarding the figures in our country, it is estimated that

10 percent of the world's population

suffers

from it.

It is a frequent disease, which motivates a large percentage of dermatological consultations.

By scratching, patients can further hurt themselves and increase the risk of infections.

In first person

Another relevant fact is that it usually

appears in childhood:

85 percent present manifestations of the condition before the age of five.

It may happen that it disappears later, or that it persists for life.

In the case of Martina, who although she was diagnosed at 9 months by an outbreak, the plaques so characteristic of the disease began to appear

more intensely

at six years.

"For Martina it became more difficult to

pay attention at school

due to the itching, she had to change her clothes for one that minimizes breakouts. Even bathing requires a huge effort for her," says her mother, María Alejandra Rubin, who emphasizes the difficulty of facing a radical change in habits resulting from the condition.

This pathology manifests itself from childhood in 85 percent of cases.

Photo Shutterstock.

The disease, which is not contagious, goes through periods of outbreaks of greater or lesser intensity, and others of calm.

Those who suffer from it moderately to severely tend to have problems sleeping and

carrying out their daily activities

, the most intense symptom being intense itching or itching, with irritation, redness, pain, scabs and infections.

This is the case of Gustavo, a 53-year-old patient who was diagnosed with atopic dermatitis approximately seven years ago.

As he relates, he started with some symptoms, but from one day to the next they accelerated.

“Suddenly I had

my whole body taken

, sprouted.

To this was added a universal alopecia in which I lost all my hair ”.

"I had 70% of my body taken by dermatitis, with

injured hands and feet

 -he continues- Bathing was difficult for me, the water touched me and it was a pain that made me cry; my wife did not sleep because I could not stop scratching. I gained a lot of weight, people on the street did not recognize me, I began not to go out and I became very depressed, "he sums up.

Atopic dermatitis is considered a

multifactorial disease,

so it can be due to both genetic factors (mostly) and environmental factors or defects in the barriers that protect the skin, as well as immunological alterations.

The disease in pandemic

"We start from the premise that this adverse context impacted all human beings, but the obstacles may have been even more challenging for the community of people who live with a

chronic disease

like this and in the context of our country," he reflects. Silvia Fernández Barrio, President of AEPSO, regarding the motivations to carry out the survey.

In order to rank the discomfort experienced by patients regarding their illness during quarantine, they were asked what the

predominant feeling was.

Thus, anxiety appeared as the main one (52.9%), followed by anguish (43.2%), fatigue (40.4%) and wasting (39.6%).

Also, during the pandemic, 55% of patients rated their atopic dermatitis as

moderate or high.

Also, approximately half of the participants stated that their disease had worsened, compared to the stage prior to March 2020.

Regarding one of the main symptoms of this pathology, 62.8% stated that the itching during quarantine was (and continues to be) moderate or high, 41.3% more than before.

It is important to bear in mind that those who experience chronic and intense itching are

three times more likely

to develop depression and twice as

likely

to experience anxiety, as reported by AEPSO and ADAR.

In turn, 18.1% of those who were treated

discontinued treatment

for financial reasons, and 1 in 10 decided without medical advice to suspend the medication for fear of COVID-19.

Six out of ten participants report having trouble sleeping.

Photo Shutterstock.

“We also learned of cases that were receiving systemic treatments and

suffered

'bureaucratic'

interruptions

due to the closure of offices of the social and prepaid works.

That was restored, but it would give the impression that the obstacles persist and we are concerned about the future of access to treatment, ”says Fernández Barrio.

In Gustavo's case, his treatment had satisfactory effects, but recently his medical coverage

stopped covering the drugs

, so the outbreaks started again and the impact on his quality of life, too.

The economic factor and the crisis triggered by the pandemic had their correlation in the treatment of the disease: 13 percent of those surveyed

lost their jobs

, and 7 percent stopped having medical coverage.

Obesity, sedentary lifestyle and stress

In line with what happened to the general population, survey participants

gained

, on average,

2 kilos in the pandemic,

while 10 percent increased more than 10. The number of people engaged in physical activity also dropped.

"We must pay attention to these data, because being a systemic and inflammatory disease, its

link with obesity

and cardiovascular complications

is being studied

, comorbidities that have already been widely demonstrated in other diseases such as psoriasis", highlights Paula Luna, medical specialist in Dermatology and Children's Dermatology from the German Hospital.

Meanwhile, 6 out of 10 patients consider that their current level of

stress is high

or very high, 34% more than in the pre-pandemic world.

On the other hand, also 6 out of 10 affirm that the quality of their current sleep is fair or bad and for 37.8% it worsened.

"During the beginning of the quarantine, many mental health treatments were interrupted because psychologists had not been declared essential personnel and we had to

stop the treatments

. For different reasons, many patients have not been able to adapt to telemedicine, which has further aggravated plus their situation ", Laura Resnichenco, psychologist member of ADAR, analyzes to close.

Look also

Psoriasis, the disease that exploded in the pandemic

What is chronic urticaria and why early diagnosis is important

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-09-14

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