Dr Robert Sidbury Addresses Quality-of-Life Burden in Atopic Dermatitis

Along with common symptoms of itch and pain, patients with atopic dermatitis experience significant work productivity and attention issues that affect overall quality of life, said Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, chief, Division of Dermatology, Seattle Children's Hospital.

Transcript

What are some common factors that impact quality of life in patients with atopic dermatitis, and how does this affect overall outcomes?

Big ones are itch, pain is sort of underrecognized. Itch and pain sort of travel along similar neural pathways and have some similarities, but in terms of perception of the public of what does this disease do: oh, it's an itchy rash—no big deal. Well it’s a painful rash, too. And that pain can be a huge issue for patients.

Both of those can lead to sleep loss, which can be incredibly significant for kids with school performance and attention. For adults with work, performance, attention—it can disrupt relationships. It's a very visible condition. So not only is it symptomatic and bothersome, patients with atopic dermatitis oftentimes are wearing their disease on their skin and it's hard to cover up sometimes. That can disrupt social interactions, it can affect employment, it can affect bonding with peers. So all of these things are incredibly important.

One other thing that fails to be appreciated oftentimes is just the hyper irritability of the skin. So itch,  pain, yes, all of those things are true, but the skin is just incredibly sensitive and reactive, such that for instance, just putting on a wool sweater, if you've got eczema, even if you had a history of eczema, and it's gone away and you had an itchy rash for 10 years, perhaps—you put on a wool sweater and instantly it feels itchy and uncomfortable for many patients with atopic dermatitis or a history of it.

So, all of these things just are present, ubiquitous, and 24/7, and can really impact patients' quality of life. So I think all those things are worth being aware of.