Posted December 1, 2015

Skin problems tied to stress

Temple researchers find a link between psychological stress and skin symptoms in college students.

students studying in the Tech Center.
Ryan S. Brandenberg
Students can keep their skin healthy by lowering their stress levels.
As the fall semester comes to a close and final exams loom, students who feel high levels of stress might also find themselves suffering from a variety of skin problems. A new study by researchers in the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Temple University finds that heightened levels of psychological stress are associated with skin complaints in undergraduate students.
 
“Previous studies have demonstrated an association between stress and skin symptoms, but those studies relied on small patient samples, did not use standardized tools, are anecdotal in nature or focused their analyses on a single skin disease,” says Gil Yosopovitch, chair of the Department of Dermatology in the Katz School of Medicine, director of the Temple Itch Center and corresponding author of the study. 
 
The study was conducted at Temple University during the fall 2014 semester and included 422 students in the final sample size.