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Psoriasis

Conventional Treatments For Psoriasis

Summary & Participants

People living with psoriasis know all too well how its symptoms--itching, redness and inflammation of the skin--can be both uncomfortable and embarrassing. There is still no cure for the disease, but there are a number of conventional treatment options that can control symptoms. Join our specialists as they discuss the various conventional treatment strategies.

Medically Reviewed On: February 07, 2002

Webcast Transcript

MABEL JONG: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our webcast. I'm Mabel Jong. For the thousands of people suffering from psoriasis, the symptoms, which include flaking, redness and inflammation of the skin, can be uncomfortable and embarrassing. Fortunately, treatments are available to control psoriasis, and some may even induce a remission of the disease.

Joining us to discuss the options, we have Dr. Ken Gordon. He's the director of the Psoriasis Treatment Center at Northwestern University. We also have Dr. Mark Lebwohl, professor and chairman of the department of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being with us today.

Now, before we start discussing treatments, can you briefly discuss what psoriasis is?

MARK LEBWOHL, MD: Psoriasis is an inherited disorder of the skin in which immune cells in the skin respond abnormally to external stimuli and release factors that cause the superficial cells of the skin to multiply too quickly. Ordinarily, the superficial layers of the skin make themselves over about every 28 days. In severe psoriasis, those superficial layers can make themselves over every two to four days, and what you see are these thick, red, scaly plaques of skin coming up.

MABEL JONG: What are the goals of treatment?

KENNETH GORDON, MD: I think the goal of treatment for psoriasis really has to be determined by the patient. Each patient has different goals and different things they're looking for. Clearance, really, complete clearance of psoriasis is really not the ultimate goal, because very few patients become completely clear and free of their disease. What you want to do is control it to the point where the patient can be satisfied and go out and do their activities of daily living in a way that's satisfactory to the patient. For each patient, that level is going to be different.

MABEL JONG: Let's talk a little bit now about the treatments. A lot of topical medications are available, Dr. Lebwohl?

MARK LEBWOHL, MD: There are dozens, if not actually hundreds of topical medications, but they fall into a small number of categories. Until recently, certainly, the most commonly prescribed treatment for psoriasis was topical corticosteroids, and there are probably several hundred, or at least 100 of those available worldwide. And they range in strength from very weak to very strong. They come in lotions, solutions, creams, emollient creams, ointments. As a rough rule, the messier they are, the more effective they are, so that ointments are more effective than creams.

There are some old-fashioned treatments that are derived from tar. Tars themselves that are used are anthralin, which is a rather messy treatment that is available for psoriasis.

MABEL JONG: For the topical medications, do you need prescriptions for all of these?

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