Big Data Reveal Insights into Alopecia Areata Comorbidities

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases create a substantial burden of disease, and alopecia areata is among the more prevalent forms. Comorbidities are medical conditions that tend to occur together and may provide etiologic insights, suggest novel therapeutic strategies, and help patients and family members understand the risk of other health conditions. It is well established that having one autoimmune disease increases risk for others because of an underlying shared biology. Precision medicine initiatives are creating vast amounts of data that allow us to efficiently identify comorbidities. A survey across various datasets suggests that patients with autoimmune disease, and patients with alopecia areata in particular, may have comorbid neuropsychiatric and metabolic conditions.