A Review of Skin Disease in Schizophrenia

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Schizophrenia is a debilitating neuropsychiatric condition that affects 0.5% of the North American population. Skin disease in schizophrenia has not been well described. Identifying skin diseases that are commonly comorbid with schizophrenia may help clinicians address the burden of skin disease in patients with schizophrenia. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> We conducted a nonsystematic review of the literature to identify skin diseases that may be associated with schizophrenia. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO for articles published in English from December 2000 through April 2020 using the key words “skin disease” or “dermatological” or “dermatology” and “schizophrenia.” Based on our results, we further refined the search terms to include more specific skin diseases. Schizophrenia appears to be associated with a number of skin diseases, including inflammatory dermatoses, autoimmune diseases, and certain genodermatoses. Limitations include being a nonsystematic review and the relative paucity of more rigorous clinical research using longitudinal study designs.