Board-Certified Dermatologist/Pigmentary Disease Expert: Can Stress Trigger or Exacerbate Vitiligo?
Seemal Desai, MD, FAAD, is a board-certified dermatologist, pigmentary disease expert, and clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Increased stress over the last year has taken its toll on everyone, but for the millions of people worldwide living with vitiligo a skin disease that causes the skin to lose its natural color new research suggests that the effects of stress may be more than skin deep.
Research published in the
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology assessed perceptions of stress from 535 people with vitiligo to understand how stress affects the disease and its progression. According to the study, more than half of those who participated shared that stress triggered their vitiligo. The findings also suggest that people with a family history of vitiligo, women, and people with a personal history of al