Can vitiligo be caused by stress?

Possibly. The actual cause of vitiligo still remains unknown, but it is widely thought to be an autoimmune disease, where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues and organs. In the case of vitiligo, the organ is the skin, and the immune system attacks the melanocytes in the skin, causing pigment to disappear. Because emotional stress is thought to affect the severity of autoimmune diseases, it is possible that a stressful event could trigger vitiligo.