Alopecia areata Learning Zone
Transcript: Psychosocial needs of young people and children with alopecia areata
Dr Brittany Craiglow
Interview recorded Mar 2024. All transcripts are created from interview footage and directly reflect the content of the interview at the time. The content is that of the speaker and is not adjusted by Medthority.
Alopecia areata is a really difficult disease. And I think, you know, if you haven't spent a lot of time with patients who've had it, or if you don't know somebody who's gone through it, it's sort of easy to think, oh, it's just hair or it could be worse. You know, at least they're not sick. And in fact, most patients who have alopecia areata or family members of patients have heard this over and over, including from healthcare providers. But you know, I will say that sort of any degree of alopecia areata is usually very difficult for patients. And in most cases, I really do think that it's traumatic. And again, that might seem like sort of an extreme thing to say, but if you really spend the time talking to people you will learn that that really is true. So I think it's really important for us as healthcare professionals to acknowledge that this is hard. You know, a lot of these patients have sort of been dismissed and said, oh, well, you know, why are you so upset about it? You could wear a hat or you could wear a wig, but you know, it's really not that easy. And when you're having a hard time with something and you're going to somebody who you're hoping can help you and you get that response, it really sort of adds to the difficulty of it.
So I think, you know, just even starting a visit saying, hey, you know, how are you doing? This is hard. Kind of putting it out there for them and normalising and validating their experience, I think is really important because then the patient is gonna feel more comfortable. They're gonna feel like you kind of get it, and then they may be, you know, more willing to think about treatment that you have to offer, or at least just open up with how they're feeling. So, you know, I think kind of supporting that psychosocial aspect is really useful. But importantly, that's not treatment, right? We wanna help patient cope and you know, and acknowledge the difficulty and let them, you know, have a space to be able to say how hard it is.
But ultimately that, you know, that's not treatment, just sort of support along the way. But I think, you know, another thing that's really hard about hair loss is that even with these really reliably effective therapies, it takes a long time. And so, you know, I think some patients think they start putting this pill in their mouth and then the next day they're gonna see hair. And that's actually not really what happens. It's often 2, 3, 4, 6 months even before you start to see much happening. And then for patients, especially those who wear their hair longer, it's a really long time before they really feel kind of back to normal. And so I think while it's exciting for them to see regrowth, you know, they're not being greedy and that, you know, they just kind of really wanna get back to normal. And that can take time. And I think sort of acknowledging that along the way is really important also, because, you know, again, patients need to feel heard and seen. And I think this disease is so different from so many other things that we see. And it's really life altering in an incredible way.
You know, I think it's kind of impossible to interact with the world in a normal way when you don't have hair or when you have severe hair loss, or you're missing eyebrows and eyelashes and you know, there's good data to show that these patients face stigma. You know, this is not something they're making up. It really is real. So part of our job beyond the medical treatment is to you know, treat the patient and kind of care for them as a person also. And I will say, you know, that is also very rewarding. I think those relationships are really meaningful as a physician. And while it may take a little bit more time, we kind of reap the rewards in the end.
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Developed by EPG Health. This content has been developed independently of the sponsor, Pfizer, who has reviewed the content only for scientific accuracy. EPG Health received funding from the sponsor in order to help provide healthcare professionals with access to the highest quality medical and scientific information, education and associated relevant content.