Key points
- At least 100 million people worldwide are affected by psoriasis, with reported country prevalence ranging from 0.09% to 11.43% (WHO Global report on psoriasis, 2016).
- WHO describes psoriasis as a chronic, noncommunicable skin disease with no clear cause or cure, associated with discrimination and stigma.
- Visible skin conditions carry a double burden: the condition itself, and the way other people react to it — staring, avoidance, and wrong ideas about contagion.
- This page extends the general stigma guide: it covers skin specifically, links to condition charities rather than duplicating them, and points to the Wellbeing Support Directory for support routes.
Direct answer: A visible skin condition carries two burdens: the condition itself, and the way other people react to it. WHO describes psoriasis — at least 100 million people affected worldwide — as a chronic, noncommunicable skin disease associated with discrimination and stigma (Global report on psoriasis, 2016). This page is about that second burden: what stigma looks like when a condition can be seen, how it affects confidence and daily life, and where support is found. It extends the general stigma guide on this site; it does not rewrite it.
What “visible” means here
A visible skin condition is one other people can see: psoriasis, vitiligo, eczema, rosacea, leprosy, scabies. The visibility is the point. A condition that can be seen invites reactions a hidden condition does not — staring, questions, avoidance, and wrong ideas about whether it can be caught. None of those reactions is a medical fact. Psoriasis, vitiligo, eczema and rosacea are not contagious. Scabies spreads in crowded settings, and leprosy is a skin neglected tropical disease — neither is caught by looking at someone, and neither is a reason to avoid a person. The companion guide on scabies and leprosy covers those two conditions in full.
Psoriasis, in numbers
The one global figure this page states is WHO’s, and it is dated: at least 100 million people worldwide are affected by psoriasis, with reported country prevalence ranging from 0.09% to 11.43% (WHO Global report on psoriasis, 2016). WHO calls psoriasis a chronic, noncommunicable skin disease with no clear cause or cure, associated with discrimination and stigma. The figure is a decade old — a revision of the WHO Global Report on Psoriasis was announced in February 2026, and this page will be updated when the revised report is published. Until then, the 2016 figure is stated with its year, not as a current estimate.
What stigma looks like
Stigma around visible skin conditions takes three forms, matching the three types in the general stigma guide. Public stigma is what other people think and do: staring, stepping back, refusing to share a pool or a towel, asking intrusive questions. Self-stigma is what a person comes to believe about themselves: that they should hide, that they are unattractive, that they are a burden. Structural stigma is the rules and systems that exclude a group — and for leprosy in particular, that exclusion has a long history, including laws and colonies that separated people from their communities. The general guide explains all three types; this page says only that all three act on visible skin, and that they act at the same time.
Skin and mental health
Living with a visible difference affects confidence and mood — that is the plain statement, and this page does not go further into figures, because the clinical-study figures for anxiety and depression in specific conditions were not verified against primary sources in the research behind it. The connection is recognised in dermatology itself, which has a name for it — psychodermatology — and condition charities exist in part because of it. What matters for this page is the direction of the link: stigma makes mental health worse, and better mental health makes stigma easier to bear. The children’s mental health guides on this site cover the same link from the other side, for young people.
Support: what helps
Support for a visible skin condition comes in three kinds, and this page links to all three rather than duplicating any of them. Condition charities go deepest per condition: the Psoriasis Association, the Vitiligo Society and the National Eczema Society each carry information and peer support for their condition, and Changing Faces is the UK charity for visible difference generally. Peer support — meeting and hearing from people with lived experience — is the strongest way to reduce stigma, according to research summarised by the Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health and reported by WHO, as the general stigma guide records. And official support routes are listed in the Wellbeing Support Directory on this site, which lists official routes only and does not triage, score or diagnose anyone.
Frequently asked questions
What is psoriasis?
A chronic, noncommunicable skin disease, in WHO's words — with no clear cause or cure, and associated with discrimination and stigma. At least 100 million people worldwide are affected (WHO, 2016).
Are visible skin conditions contagious?
Psoriasis, vitiligo, eczema and rosacea are not contagious. Scabies spreads in crowded settings, and leprosy is a skin neglected tropical disease — neither is caught by looking at someone.
Where can I find support?
Condition charities — the Psoriasis Association, the Vitiligo Society and the National Eczema Society — and the Wellbeing Support Directory on this site, which lists official support routes only.