The Positive Effect of Psychotherapy in the Treatment of an Erosive Oral and Dermal Lichen Planus Case

Zana Fuad Noori; Mohammed Khalid Mahmood; Pinar Yaseen Raof; Handren Ameer Kurda; Balen Hamid Qadir; Didar Anwar Abdulrahman; Mohammed Aso Abdulghafor; Mohammed Taib Fatih; Basoz Khalid Hama Noori

doi:10.1002/ccr3.9716

The Positive Effect of Psychotherapy in the Treatment of an Erosive Oral and Dermal Lichen Planus Case

Clin Case Rep. 2025 Jan 9;13(1):e9716. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.9716. eCollection 2025 Jan.

Authors

Zana Fuad Noori¹, Mohammed Khalid Mahmood², Pinar Yaseen Raof¹, Handren Ameer Kurda³, Balen Hamid Qadir⁴, Didar Anwar Abdulrahman⁴, Mohammed Aso Abdulghafor³, Mohammed Taib Fatih⁴, Basoz Khalid Hama Noori⁵

Affiliations

¹ Oral Biology Department, Dentistry College American University of Iraq-Sulaimani AUIS Sulaymaniyah Iraq.
² Odotology Department Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, EFS, ADES Marseille France.
³ College of Dentistry Sulaimani University Sulaymaniyah Iraq.
⁴ Department of Dentistry Komar University of Science and Technology Sulaymaniyah Iraq.
⁵ Clinical Psychology Department Koya University Koya Iraq.

Abstract

Lichen planus (LP) is an autoimmune disease that may affect the oral cavity and the skin, and it has the potential to change to malignancy. In this paper we report a LP case in a 42-year-old male patient in which anxiety and depression were apparently the only possible risk factors of LP. Due to this apparent comorbidity and the risk of not responding well to conventional medication (topical and systemic corticosteroids) or the risk of relapse in the case of ongoing stress, we decided to integrate psychotherapy (without psychotropic drugs) as an adjunct into the management strategy. Psychotherapy sessions, reassuring the patient and stress alleviation, proved to be a very useful alongside the standard corticosteroid medication.

Keywords: erosive lichen planus; lichen planus; oral lichen planus; psychotherapy.