26.    Experiences of persons with alopecia areata.
Susan McHale,(1) Nigel Hunt,(2) Neil Coulson,(2) 1.Department of Psychology, Hallam University, Sheffield, 2.IWHO, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

Alopecia is a chronic inflammatory dermatological disease that affects the hair follicles. It manifests in varying degrees of severity from small patches of hair loss to total loss of all head hair through to the severest form where all body hair is lost. There are few physical symptoms apart from, for example, discomfort caused by the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes. Research into the psychological impact of alopecia has been limited, and is usually secondary to medical research, but it demonstrates that there are psychological problems associated with the disorder (Hunt & McHale, 2005), including anxiety and depression. We present the findings from two qualitative studies into the psychological impact of alopecia. We recruited 162 participants to generate spontaneous written accounts and a further 34 participants who took part in an email interview over several days. Accounts which varied in length from a few lines of text to six pages were subjected to analysis using a grounded approach. Findings from both studies indicated similar degrees of psychological distress and focussed on negative personal, social and medical effects. Successful coping was discussed by very few respondents, but included behavioural change and acceptance of appearance and identity change. Psychological distress was not related to the severity of hair loss. It is important to highlight the psychosocial consequences to physicians, and to provide alopecia sufferers with the means to deal with the psychological sequelae of hair loss.

Hunt S, McHale S Journal of Loss and Trauma. 2005. 10: 1-18.