Control of negative emotions and its implication for illness perception among psoriasis and vitiligo patients

Background The purpose of the study was to determine the intensity of control over negative emotions of anger, depressed mood, and anxiety in certain skin diseases such as psoriasis and vitiligo, and to define the predictors of this emotional control in terms of the illness perception in the following context: duration of illness, age at onset, subjective knowledge of the causes of illness, subjective sense of control over the disease. Methods The study included 60 patients with psoriasis (n = 30) and vitiligo (n = 30) as well as healthy persons (n = 60) matched to the experimental group in terms of gender, age, and level of education. Control of negative emotions was examined by means of Watson and Greer’s Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (Polish adaptation by Juczynski) and the illness perception by means of Kossakowska’s Chronic Patients Questionnaire. Results The research concludes that psoriasis patients control negative emotions more intensively than healthy people. Vitiligo patients on the other hand do not differ in the control of negative emotions compared with healthy subjects. There are no significant predictors of negative emotional control in vitiligo. In psoriasis gender and age are the main contributors to negative emotional control and anger control is predicted by the age at onset as well. Conclusion The specificity of the skin disease affects maladaptive negative emotional control and the suggestion is to use psychological treatment in hospitalised psoriasis in particular.