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The contribution of psychological disorders to the burden of skin disease has been poorly explored, and this is a large-scale study to ascertain the association between depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation with various dermatological diagnoses. This international multicenter observational cross-sectional study was conducted in 13 European countries. In each dermatology clinic, 250 consecutive adult out-patients were recruited to complete a questionnaire, reporting socio-demographic information, negative life events, and suicidal ideation; depression and anxiety were assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. A clinical examination was performed. A control group was recruited among hospital employees. There were 4,994 participants--3,635 patients and 1,359 controls. Clinical depression was present in 10.1% patients (controls 4.3%, odds ratio (OR) 2.40 (1.67-3.47)). Clinical anxiety was present in 17.2% (controls 11.1%, OR 2.18 (1.68-2.82)). Suicidal ideation was reported by 12.7% of all patients (controls 8.3%, OR 1.94 (1.33-2.82)). For individual diagnoses, only patients with psoriasis had significant association with suicidal ideation. The association with depression and anxiety was highest for patients with psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, hand eczema, and leg ulcers. These results identify a major additional burden of skin disease and have important clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tetracyclines and clindamycin plus rifampicin combination therapy are both considered first-line therapy in current hidradenitis suppurativa guidelines. However, evidence for their efficacy is drawn from small studies, often without validated outcomes., Objective: To assess the 12-week efficacy of oral tetracyclines and a combination of clindamycin and rifampicin., Methods: A prospective, international cohort study performed between October 2018 and August 2019., Results: In total, 63.6% of the included 283 patients received oral tetracyclines, and 36.4% were treated with clindamycin and rifampicin. Both groups showed a significant decrease in International Hidradenitis Suppurativa Severity Score System from baseline (both P < .001). The Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response (HiSCR) was achieved in 40.1% and 48.2% of patients, respectively (P = .26). Patient characteristics or disease severity were not associated with the attainment of HiSCR or the minimal clinically important differences for the Dermatology Life Quality Index and pain., Limitations: Cohort study. Respectively, 23.9% and 19.4% of patients had to be excluded from the HiSCR analysis for the tetracycline and combination therapy group because of a low abscess and nodule count at baseline., Conclusion: This study shows significant efficacy of both tetracycline treatment and clindamycin and rifampicin combination therapy after 12 weeks in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. No significant differences in efficacy were observed between the 2 treatments, regardless of disease severity., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest Dr Tzellos has reported relationships with AbbVie, UCB, and Sanofi Genzyme. Dr Guillem has received honoraria from AbbVie and Novartis as a consultant and has given nonpaid lectures for AbbVie, Brothier, Cicaplus, Coloplast, Inresa, and Novartis. Dr Giamarellos-Bourboulis has received honoraria from Abbott CH, Angelini Italy, bioMérieux Inc, InflaRx GmbH, MSD Greece, and XBiotech Inc; independent educational grants from AbbVie, Abbott, Astellas Pharma Europe, AxisShield, bioMérieux Inc, InflaRx GmbH, ThermoFisher Brahms GmbH, and XBiotech Inc; and funding from the FrameWork 7 program HemoSpec (granted to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), the Horizon2020 Marie-Curie Project European Sepsis Academy (granted to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), and the Horizon 2020 European Grant ImmunoSep (granted to the Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis). Dr Jemec has received honoraria from AbbVie, Chemocentryx, Coloplast, Incyte, Inflarx, Kymera, Leo Pharma, Novartis, and UCB for participation on advisory boards; grants from AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Inflarx, Janssen-Cilag, Leo Pharma, Novartis, Regeneron, and Sanofi for participation as an investigator; speaker honoraria from AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Galderma, and Novartis; and unrestricted departmental grants from Leo Pharma and Novartis. Dr Katoulis has reported relationships with AbbVie, Novartis, Genesis Pharma, Mylan, Janssen, Leo Pharma, and Lilly. Dr Koenig was an investigator, speaker, or advisor for AbbVie, Braun-Stiftung, and Celgene. Dr Lazaridou has received speaker honoraria, and/or honoraria for participation in advisory boards, and/or grants from AbbVie, Novartis, Genesis Pharma, Mylan, Pfizer, Janssen, Leo Pharma, Roche, Lilly, UCB, and Sanofi. Dr Matusiak reports personal fees from AbbVie, Amgen, Galapagos, InflaRx, Janssen-Cilag, LEO, Menlo, Novartis, Pfizer, Pierre Fabre, Regeneron, Trevi, and UCB. Dr Pinter has been an investigator, speaker, or advisor for AbbVie, Almirall-Hermal, Amgen, Biogen Idec, Biontec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Galderma, Hexal, Janssen, LEO-Pharma, MC2, Medac, Merck Serono, Mitsubishi, MSD, Novartis, Pascoe, Pfizer, Tigercat Pharma, Regeneron, Roche, Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Genzyme, Schering-Plough, and UCB Pharma. Dr Romani has reported relationships with AbbVie, Novartis, Leo Pharma, Janssen, Almirall, and Isdín. Dr Saunte was paid as a consultant for advisory board meeting by AbbVie, Janssen, Sanofi, and Leo Pharma and received speaker honoraria and/or grants from AbbVie, Pfizer, Galderma, Novartis, and Leo Pharma during the last 5 years. Dr Szepietowski reports personal fees from AbbVie, Amgen, Galapagos, InflaRx, Janssen-Cilag, LEO, Menlo, Novartis, Pfizer, Pierre Fabre, Regeneron, Sandoz, Sanofi, Sienna, Trevi, and UCB. Dr Trigoni has reported relationships with AbbVie, UCB, Novartis, and LEO. Dr Trigoni has reported relationships with AbbVie, UCB, Novartis, and LEO. Dr van der Zee has received honoraria from AbbVie. Drs van Straalen, Benhadou, Cuencia-Barrales, Daxhelet, Daoud, Efthymiou, Marzano, Molina-Leyva, Moltrasio, Potenza, Skroza, Stergianou, and Vilarrasa have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2021 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The reported incidence of COVID-19 among cohorts of patients with inflammatory bowel and skin diseases under treatment with biologicals is low. Treatment may further modify disease severity as some biological modifiers, such as anakinra, are also proposed for the management of COVID-19 patients potentially providing HS patients with an advantage. The above preliminary evidence suggests that hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) does probably not provide an increased susceptibility for COVID-19 and that any susceptibility is unlikely to be modified negatively by treatment with biologicals. On the occasion of its 10th International Conference, experts of the European Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation e.V. have prepared a consensus statement regarding anti-COVID-19 measurements for HS patients. Based on the available knowledge, patients with HS may be vaccinated against SARS-CoV2 and patients affected by metabolic syndrome constitute a high-risk group for COVID-19 and should be vaccinated at the earliest convenient point in time. HS patients on treatment with adalimumab can be vaccinated with non-living virus anti-SARS-CoV2 vaccines. A possible suboptimal effect of the vaccine may be suspected but might not be expected universally. The management of the biological treatment in HS patients is at the discretion of the dermatologist / responsible physician., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Pain and discomfort are important symptoms in dermatology. The aim of this cross-sectional, multicentre study was to describe the prevalence of pain/discomfort and its associations in patients with several dermatological conditions across 13 European countries. The outcome was the prevalence of pain/discomfort according to a question of the EQ-5D questionnaire. Data collected from November 2011 to February 2013 were complete for 3,509 consecutive outpatients. Moderate or extreme pain/discomfort was reported by 55.5% of patients and 31.5% of controls with no skin conditions. The highest proportions were reported by patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (92.9%), leg ulcer (81.4%), prurigo (80%) and lichen planus (75.6%). Pain/discomfort was associated with older age, low educational level, clinical severity, flare on scalp or hands, itch, depression, anxiety, low quality of life, and thoughts of suicide. It is important to enquire specifically about pain/discomfort during clinical consultations and to address it when planning a patient's care.

Itch is a highly prevalent and multidimensional symptom. We aimed to analyze the association between itch and mental health in dermatological patients. This multicenter study is observational and cross-sectional and was conducted in dermatological clinics across 13 European countries. A total of 3,530 patients and 1,094 healthy controls were included. Patients were examined clinically. Outcome measures were itch (presence, chronicity, and intensity), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, EQ-5D visual analogue scale, sociodemographics, suicidal ideation, and stress (negative life events and economic difficulties). Ethical approval was obtained. Results showed significant association between the presence of itch in patients and clinical depression (odds ratio, 1.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.15-2.02), suicidal ideation (odds ratio, 1.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.60), and economic difficulties (odds ratio, 1.24; 95% confidence interval, 1.10-1.50). The mean score of reported generic health status assessed by the EQ-5D visual analogue scale was 65.9 (standard deviation = 20.1) in patients with itch, compared with 74.7 (standard deviation = 18.0) in patients without itch (P < 0.001) and 74.9 (standard deviation = 15.7) in controls with itch compared with 82.9 (standard deviation = 15.6) in controls without itch (P < 0.001). Itch contributes substantially to the psychological disease burden in dermatological patients, and the management of patients should include access to multidisciplinary care., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The link between acne and psychiatric morbidities has been demonstrated in many studies; however, large scale studies aiming to reveal the psychosocial impact of acne are rare. The aim of this study was to assess the psychological burden of adult acne patients. This analysis was based on a multicenter study including 213 acne patients and 213 controls from 13 European countries. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Dermatology Life Quality Index, and EuroQol 5 dimensions 3 levels scores of the patients with acne were analyzed. Patients with acne (n = 213) had higher HADS scores for anxiety (mean ± standard deviation 6.70 ± 3.84) and depression (3.91 ± 3.43) than the controls (p < 0.001 for both). For patients with acne, 40.6% reported that they were very concerned about their skin disease, 12.3% had suicidal ideation, and, among those, 10 (4%) patients implied that acne was the cause of their suicidal thoughts. After adjusting for other variables, patients who had suicidal ideation (p = 0.007, and adjusted odds ratio 3.32 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.39-7.93]) and stressful life events (p < 0.001, and adjusted OR 5.85 [95% CI: 2.65-12.86]) had a greater chance of fulfilling the HADS criteria for anxiety. This study highlights the need for a psychotherapeutic approach in order to recognize the concerns of acne patients and optimize their treatment.

Itch is an unpleasant symptom, affecting many dermatological patients. Studies investigating the occurrence and intensity of itch in dermatological patients often focus on a single skin disease and omit a control group with healthy skin. The aim of this multi-centre study was to assess the occurrence, chronicity and intensity (visual analogue scale 0-10) of itch in patients with different skin diseases and healthy-skin controls. Out of 3,530 dermatological patients, 54.3% reported itch (mean ± standard deviation itch intensity 5.5 ± 2.5), while out of 1,094 healthy-skin controls 8% had itch (3.6 ± 2.3). Chronic itch was reported by 36.9% of the patients and 4.7% of the healthy-skin controls. Itch was most frequent (occurrence rates higher than 80%) in patients with unclassified pruritus, prurigo and related conditions, atopic dermatitis and hand eczema. However, many patients with psychodermatological conditions and naevi also reported itch (occurrence rates higher than 19%).

The subtype of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) influences the choice of treatment. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging tool, and a recent development of an angiographic version of OCT has extended the application of OCT to image the cutaneous microvasculature (so-called dynamic OCT, D-OCT). This study explores D-OCT's ability to differentiate the common BCC subtypes by microvascular and structural imaging. Eighty-one patients with 98 BCC lesions, consisting of three subtypes: 27 superficial BCC (sBCC), 55 nodular BCC (nBCC) and 16 infiltrative BCC (iBCC) were D-OCT scanned at three European dermatology centres. Blinded evaluations of microvascular and structural features were performed, followed by extensive statistical analysis of risk ratio (RR) and multiple correspondence analysis. nBCC lesions displayed most characteristic structural and vascular features. Serpiginous vessels, branching vessels, vessels creating a circumscribed figure and sharply demarcated hyporeflective ovoid structures in the dermis were all associated with a higher risk of the subtype being nBCC. The presence of highly present lines and dark peripheral borders at the margin of ovoid structures was negatively associated with iBCC. Lastly, the finding of hyporeflective ovoid structures protruding from epidermis correlated with sBCC. We identified various microvascular and structural D-OCT features that may aid non-invasive identification of BCC subtypes. This would allow clinicians to individualize and optimize BCC treatment as well as aid follow-up of non-surgical treatment., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)