Does chronic urticaria affect quality of sleep and quality of life?

Background: Urticaria affects a wide range of daily activities and social relationships. It has a severe impact on quality of life (QOL) and causes psychological problems.

Objective: was to assess the impact of chronic urticaria (CU) on quality of sleep, the levels of depression, anxiety, QOL and their interaction with each other and their relation to disease related factors.

Patients And Methods: The study included 25 patients with CU and 25 healthy controls. Urticaria Activity Score (UAS) was used for objective evaluation of the intensity of urticaria. Patients completed a 10-cm visual analogue score (VAS) indicating the overall severity of their itching over the previous 2 weeks. The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was used to evaluate patients' QOL. Patients were also assessed for anxiety and depression with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used for evaluation of sleep quality and sleep disturbances.

Results: In our CU patients the mean of UAS7 score was 39.72 ± 2.76 and the mean of VAS score was 28 ± 1.34. The mean of DLQI score was 24.8 ± 4.37 indicating severe impact of QOL. CU patients had higher total HADS score when compared to controls; 72% of the patients had depression and 92% had anxiety. By using PSQI, CU patients had significantly longer sleep latency onset, shorter total sleep duration, lower sleep efficiency and higher PSQI scores compared to controls.

Conclusion: CU highly affects the QOL of patients and is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression and poor sleep quality.