Symptoms and Psoriasis Treatment

Psoriasis is a complex disorder that negatively affects quality of life. It is considered a non-curable auto-immune condition. Psoriasis treatment strategies must address both psychological, psychosocial, physical aspects of the disease. With its impact generally affecting the physical appearance, having the disease in a severe condition usually leads to poor self-esteem, social withdrawal and depression.

Psoriasis is known to affect almost 1-2 percent of the population worldwide. It is a chronic disorder of the skin characterized by reddish, scaly patches of inflammation, most commonly affecting the elbows, knees, scalp, and/or groin. Psoriasis can be classified as mild or severe. Mild cases might only manifest small, red, or pink lightly dry skin patches and can hardly be noticed as a medical skin problem. With severe forms, symptoms can be as bad as generalized thickening, raising, scaling, and flaking of the skin, which can adversely affect functions of daily living including work and social activities.

Psoriasis treatments have been given more attention in recent years. Dedication to psoriasis research has entailed more resources, money and ingenuity to both public and private health sectors. These have been responsible for the launch of many new drugs and therapies in the public market for the alleviation of symptoms, if not total cure of the disease.

Psoriasis pictures: As psoriasis is classified into severity, treatment for psoriasis and therapies are determined by whether it is mild or severe. Mild psoriasis which involves only small areas of the body (like less than 10% of the total skin surface), topical (skin applied) creams, lotions, and sprays containing corticosteroids may be highly effective and safe to use to alleviate skin lesions – for instance, Corticosteroid lotions as psoriasis scalp treatment. On the other hand, moderate to severe cases (involving 20% or more of the total skin surface), symptoms may not be eliminated as topical treatments can now be impractical to use because of decreased effectiveness. These would call for systemic or total body treatments such as pills, light treatments, or injections, although greater associated possible risks for stronger medications are known.

One of the new psoriasis treatments is Psoralen plus UVA exposure, commonly termed as PUVA. Psoralen is a medication applied or taken orally to sensitize the skin. The skin is then exposed to Ultraviolet rays in a relatively low dosage. The doctor can choose a dose based on the patient’s skin type and severity. A small area of the patient’s skin will be exposed to UVA after ingestion of Psoralen. 72 hours later, a Phototoxic dose (MPD) is produced causing the skin uniform redness. This is now the starting dose of the treatment. Some patients experience undesirable effects after the intake of Psoralen compound such as nausea or itching. For these patients PUVA bath therapy may be a good option. After undergoing this procedure, patients can notice clearing out of skin breakouts or lesions after a period of time. Although this treatment is highly recommended, studies are continually done because research has shown that it causes malignancy in cells could possibly cause cancer. It is basically because the main use of treatment is UV, commonly emitted by the sun, which in a larger dosage or exposure has been known to cause skin cancer.

Physical symptoms of patients with severe psoriasis usually have caused social misconceptions and hurtful discrimination. It is mistakenly believed that psoriasis can be acquired if you have close skin-to-skin contact with a patient such as hugging or touching. Others would also think bathing in a pool will make the person spread his or her condition. The incidence of baby eczema is not a predictor of psoriasis later in life. Personal hygiene was also mistakenly thought to cause psoriasis. This social stigma can lead people to avoid social contact, which in turn leads to poor quality of life. Correcting the social perception can be cured by awareness of truthful information. With psoriasis health plans, it is not only important that we heal the symptoms because the underlying disease itself cannot be cured, but also improve the wholeness of the quality of the patients’ lives.