An Observational Study on Psychological Assessment in Kushta

This is a First of a Kind Study in Ayurveda aimed at assessing the psychological symptoms in Kushta. About 30 percent of patients who have skin disorders are reported to have psychological manifestations and psychosocial impairments such as feelings of stress, anxiety, anger, depression, shame, social isolation, low self-esteem, and embarrassment. These factors are often not looked upon or are neglected when it comes to the interventional aspect. Psychological assessment in the patients of Kushta can provide a route map towards prevention from further worsening of disease, planning effective interventions and to predict prognosis of the disease. The Severity of the Psychological symptoms involved in a skin disease needs more exploration and this assessment paves a new way into a clinician’s approach towards a dermatological condition. Here, Psychological Assessment is done using DASS-21 Scale.

SURVEY METHOD: Questionnaire- based

·       A pre-validated questionnaire DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) Questionnaire will be used for this study to collect qualitative data

·       A questionnaire would be filled out by the researcher.

·       The responses will be recorded and results will be analyzed with the help of a statistical tool based on the results and conclusions will be drawn.

Each Diagnosed participant who are willing to sign the informed consent would undergo psychological assessment using DASS-21(Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) Questionnaire.

 DASS-21 is a health tool that evaluates the severity of behavioral and emotional symptoms that are correlated with depression, anxiety disorder and stress.

 Each of the three DASS-21 scales contains 7 items, divided into subscales with similar content. The depression scale assesses dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-depreciation, lack of interest / involvement, anhedonia and inertia. The anxiety scale assesses autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects, situational anxiety, and subjective experience of anxious affect. The stress scale is sensitive to levels of chronic nonspecific arousal. It assesses difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, and being easily upset / agitated, irritable / over-reactive and impatient. Scores for depression, anxiety and stress are calculated by summing the scores for the relevant items.

The 21 items on the questionnaire comprise a set of 3 self-reported scales designed to assess DASS. The 7 elements on the scales are graded on a Likert scale from 0 to 3 (0: Does not apply to me at all, 1: Applied to me to some degree or some of the time, 2: Applied to me to a considerable degree or a good part of the time and 3: Applied to me very much or most of the time). Depression, anxiety, and stress scores are measured by summarizing the scores of the related items.

 Because the DASS-21 is a shorter version of the 42-item original DASS, the score for each subscale must be multiplied by 2 to calculate the final score. According to the manual, the resulting ratings then are classified as: “normal, mild, moderate, severe, or extremely severe”.