Depression, anxiety levels and general psychological profile in Behçet's disease

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystem disease with unknown etiology. Until today, the role of emotional stress and the real incidence of psychiatric symptoms in this disease have not been clarified yet.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the general psychological profile of the patients diagnosed as having BD as well as their depression and anxiety levels in order to investigate the psychiatric aspects of this disease.

Material and methods: Twenty-three patients with BD and 17 patients with chronic plaque-type psoriasis who made up the control group were examined by the Beck Depression (BDI), Beck Anxiety (BAI) and Brief Symptom Inventories (BSI).

Results: The mean BDI score of the BD group was 11.69 +/- 6.93, and the corresponding value was 9.11 +/- 7.34 for the psoriasis group. The mean BAI score of the BD group was 21.39 + 13.68 and this level was 12.41 +/- 10.70 for psoriasis patients. The mean BSI score of the BD group was 61.30 +/- 43.66 and it was 30.41 +/- 28.77 for the control group. The mean BDI, BAI and BSI scores of the patients diagnosed as having BD were significantly higher than those of the control group (F = 0.234, F = 0.508, F = 0.549 and p < 0.05).

Conclusion: BDI, BAI and BSI scales are useful to evaluate the psychiatric aspects of BD. The results of our study revealed that the collaboration of a dermatologist and psychiatrist is essential for the follow-up of patients with BD.