Avaliação da qualidade de vida de adultos com vitiligo.

Abstract

Vitiligo is a distressing disease, characterized by uneven loss of skin pigmentation caused by the destruction of pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. Considered as an autoimmune disease, with no defined etiology, it is characterized by achromic stains due to the absence of melanocytes in the skin. The fact that there is no specific treatment for the condition causes individuals with vitiligo to undergo several psychological processes over time, as the disease is aesthetically disfiguring, which promotes the development of feelings such as fear, depression and anxiety, which they are anchored in expectations for the future, which are often frustrated by the aggravation of hypochromic dyschromia, by the therapeutic failure, causing them to have many episodes of depression throughout their lives, which contributes to a poor prognosis of the disease. As one of the dermatological diseases with the greatest emotional impact, this study aims to assess the quality of life of adults with vitiligo through the application of the VitiQoL questionnaire (LILLY et al., 2013) which is an assessment tool designed especially for understand the impacts of vitiligo on those affected.