Warts and hives are both skin conditions, but that's where most of the resemblance ends. These two conditions look different and have different causes and treatments, with one exception. Stress can increase your susceptibility to both warts and hives. Stress doesn't cause warts; it only increases your susceptibility to the virus that causes warts. Stress can cause hives in some cases. Both often resolve without any treatment.
Stress and Warts
The human papillomavirus causes warts, which most often occur on the hands, feet or face. More than 100 different variations of this virus exist, according to the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Increased stress and broken skin can increase your susceptibility to wart formation, but they don't cause warts. Warts fall into several different categories, including common warts, plantar warts and genital warts, sometimes called condyloma. Warts can appear as fleshy growths or as flat, smooth areas. Warts do not cause other physical problems outside of their unsightly appearance.
Stress and Hives
Hives, unlike warts, can occur from emotional stress alone. Allergies and physical stressors such as cold or heat also can cause hives in some people. Hives appear when immune cells called mast cells release histamine. Histamine release makes blood vessels "leaky," causing the skin reaction such as itching, swelling and the appearance of hives, pinkish welts that appear on one part of your body and then disappear and pop up on another part, often over a period of several days. Hives can cause serious respiratory problems when they affect the airway. When hives occur as part of an allergic reaction, you may also have gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. You also could experience chest pain, rapid heartbeat, headache or anxiety.
Overlap
Theoretically, a person under stress could develop warts if exposed to the human papillomavirus and could also develop hives strictly from stress at the same time. In fact, the stress of having warts could cause hives, in theory.
Considerations
Both emotional and physical stress can cause a host of physical symptoms, including skin reactions, respiratory difficulties and changes in heartbeat. Warts, unlike hives, do not appear in conjunction with other physical conditions such as swelling, difficulty breathing or chest pain. Warts themselves don't cause hives, although the stress they cause might.
