RESEARCH ARTICLE
Disfigurement: Psychosocial Impact and Coping
Sreedhar Krishna
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 54
Last Page: 57
Publisher ID: TODJ-3-54
DOI: 10.2174/1874372200903010054
Article History:
Received Date: 06/03/2009Revision Received Date: 16/03/2009
Acceptance Date: 17/03/2009
Electronic publication date: 9/4/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Using the prism of skin disease, this short letter examines the overall impact that disfigurement can have on sufferers’ lives. Often trivialised by health professionals and laypeople alike, the common misconception that skin disease is not ‘serious’ is challenged. Looking in turn at the overall psychosocial impact and psychiatric co-morbidities, the effects of stigmatisation are examined as well as the coping strategies to which patients turn. By providing a brief overview of the factors that must be considered in clinic, the worthiness of adopting a holistic approach to one’s patients is emphasised.