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Background and Aim: Psoriasis is a chronic disease that causes deformity and disability in patients. There is little information about the impact of psychological interventions upon this disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of group cognitive behavioral therapy upon physical factors such as severity and level of disease and extent of itching, and mental health of psoriasis patients. Methods: This research was conducted as a semi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test with a control group and the follow-up period. Twenty Psoriasis patients were allocated into experimental and control groups. The group cognitive behavioral therapy was administered to 10 psoriasis patients allocated into the experimental group for 12 sessions. The members of both groups filled in the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) for the assessment of severity of psoriasis, general health questionnaire (GHQ), and the Quality of life in patients with pruritus (ItchyQoL) questionnaires. Results: The results indicated that the group cognitive-behavioral therapy did not have any impact upon the improvement of physical symptoms (severity and level of disease and extent of itching), but it was effective on improving the patients' psychological status. Cognitive behavioral therapy has improved the patients' general health. There is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of multiple covariance analysis for different aspects of general health, including anxiety and insomnia (effect size 0.45 and P=0.004), depression (effect size: 0.25 and P=0.044), physical symptoms (effect size 0.28 and P=0.033), and social functioning (effect size 0.41 and P=0.003). Conclusion: Although, based on the results, the group cognitive behavioral therapy does not directly affect reduction of physical symptoms of psoriasis the effectiveness of this method on patients' psychological symptoms is considerable as a mediator in the onset, exacerbation, and relapse of the disease.

Keywords: psoriasis, general health, itching.

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