P117 | Severe atopic dermatitis treated with anti-il-4rα reduces the prevalence of psychological burden in alexithymic and non-alexithymic patients
V. Patella1, E. Nettis2, T. Peduto1, L. Pierro1, G. Pellacani3, L. Bonzano4, M.S. Leto Barone5, S. Palmieri6, R. Zunno1 | 1UOC Medicina Interna, Ospedale “Santa Maria della Speranza” di Battipaglia, ASL Salerno, 2Dipartimento di Emergenza e Trapianto d’Organi, Scuola e Cattedra di Allergologia e Immunologia Clinica, Università degli Studi di Bari ‘’Aldo Moro’’, Bari, 3Ambulatorio di Dermatologia, Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche, Internistiche, Anestesiologiche e Cardiovascolari, Università degli Studi di Roma ‘’Sapienza’’, Roma, 4UO Dermatologia, Dipartimento Chirurgico, Medico, Odontoiatrico e di Scienze Morfologiche con Interesse Trapiantologico, Oncologico e di Medicina Rigenerativa, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, 5UO Medicina Interna, “Casa di Cure Orestano’’, Palermo, 6Dipartimento di Salute Mentale, ASL Salerno, Italy
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Background and Aim: Atopic Dermatitis (AD) has been associated with higher rates of perceived stress, anxiety and depression. Some studies show, in AD, a prevalence of alexithymia, a psychoaffective dysfunction characterized by the inability to identify, describe, and express feelings, restricted imagination, paucity of fantasy, and concrete, logical, and realistic thinking. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether alexithymia affects the efficacy of anti-IL-4Rα in reducing the psychological burden in AD patients.
Materials and Methods: 100 patients (age 18-83; 54 males, 46 females) affected by AD were treated with anti-IL-4Rα. At beginning of treatment and after 16 weeks, clinical, quality of life (QoL), and psychological disorder scores were evaluated. The prevalence of alexithymia was also evaluated. Results: The results show a high prevalence (78%) of alexithymia or indeterminate alexithymia in AD. However, in both alexithymic and non-alexithymic patients, treatment with anti-IL-4Rα improves psychological burden. In particular, after the treatment, in alexithymic patients, clinical symptoms, such as itching, and QoL were reduced more than non-alexithymic.
Conclusions: Our study, for the first time, shows that the treatment with anti-IL-4Rα for AD reduces the prevalence of psychological burden in both alexithymic and non-alexithymic patients. In addition, in alexithymic patients, anti-IL-4Rα improve clinical symptoms of AD and QoL more than non-alexithymic patients. We believe that it is also important to consider the psychological burden in the management of AD.
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