The Psoriasis Site

When To Contact Health Care? If you get a red, dry and scaly rash that does not disappear, contact a doctor at or a dermatologist to find out what they depend on and what help is available.

Different Types Of Treatments

If you have a moderate or severe inconvenience of your psoriasis you often need regular treatment, for example:

• Bath or cream against scaly skin
• Prescription ointments and creams containing cortisone or vitamin D-like substances
• Light
• A combination of light and tablets, known as PUVA treatment
• Medicines in tablet or spray form
• Soft X-ray treatment
• Climate care abroad

It is common to try one kind of treatment at a time to see if just the treatment helps. Usually it begins with cream or ointment. Unless they are sufficiently effective, you must perhaps try light therapy. If you take pills or syringes with different drugs it affects the whole body and is more efficient, but the disadvantage is that they can provide more severe side effects. Avoiding the possible side effects you might get by that for a long time be treated with the same method, you may have to vary between different forms of treatment.

Basic Care With Baths And Creams

The simplest treatment is to take a bath or sauna bathing in the tub for 20-30 minutes. Then loosen flakes from the outer layer, which thinned out and the inflammation of the skin mitigated. The bath also makes the skin easier to lubricate and more receptive to light. You can also remove scaly skin by lubricating with a thick layer of cream or ointment regularly several times a week. Good creams and ointments containing, for example, salicylic acid or urea. If you have mild psoriasis it may be sufficient to bathe and anoint yourself with prescription creams regularly.

Care And Treatment With Prescription Creams And Ointments

If you have trouble over large parts of the body or if the rashes are clearly visible you might want to treat your psoriasis more effectively. The creams and ointments that when used normally contains one of the following drugs:

• Cortisone. Strong cortisone creams or ointments acts quickly and will not discolor the skin. But rashes might come back after only a couple of weeks and if you use creams or ointments for several years, they can make the skin thin. Weak cortisone creams are usually no good when you have psoriasis.
• D-vitamin-like substances. It takes a little longer before having effect than cortisone drugs, but on the other hand, they do not thin out your skin when used over a long period of time.

• Dithranol. Creams work slow and during the treatment period, the places treated discolors. After treatment, which can take from a couple of weeks to one month, the discoloration dissapears within a few weeks. The advantage of the drugs is that the trouble-free period after using them lasts for a few months.

It is common to either use a strong cortisone cream or a cream containing vitamin D and cortisone in the same tub. For the scalp a special shampoo or a solution containing cortisone is used. In order to relive the symptoms, you need regular treatment for several weeks. Baths a few times a week in combination with lotions every day with an effective cream or ointment is a fairly simple treatment and which affect everyday life as little as possible.

Light

A complement to the bath, creams and ointments is the light that suppresses inflammation. The treatment is done in bright booths with ultraviolet light, UVB light, in batches of about 25 treatments, and preferably three to four times a week. It begins with about 20-30 seconds in the cabin light and at the end of the range is evident in about four minutes. Ideally, you should remove flakes of skin, with a bath or lubrication before the light treatment to make it more efficient. Combined prescription creams or ointments with light accelerates the healing of and need fewer light treatments. Because long treatments with UVB light can increase the risk of skin cancer there may be no more than two treatment series per year and no more than around 20-30 runs in total. You can get light treatment on all skin care clinics, some health centers and on special psoriasis of treatment facilities. Even children and pregnant women can be treated with creams and ointments containing cortisone and vitamin D-like substances in combination with UVB.

PUVA Treatment

If UVB treatment does not help you can get treatment that combines more long-wave UV light, UVA light, and medicines, so-called psoralen. The medicine makes the skin more sensitive to light and increases the healing effect on psoriasis. Treatment is called PUVA and medicine can be obtained either in tablet or dissolved in the bath water. PUVA treatment is given at skin care clinics. You can become nauseous of the pills, but it goes away the day after one has taken them. With high doses of light, it is possible that the skin ages prematurely. Just as in ordinary light it increases the risk of skin cancer slightly. Therefore you rarely recieve more than about 200 treatments. Children and adolescents are rarely treated with PUVA. Pregnant women should avoid the combination of UVA light and psoralen in pills and instead get psoralen which is dissolved in the bath water.

There Are Various Pills That Can Provide Relief

If you do not become better by treatments that affect the skin from the outside, you can try taking pills. Pill treatment is often simpler and more efficient.

Methotrexate

Methotrexate is the most common drug that may be taken in pill form. It is a cell inhibitory drug that are taken in a low dose, usually two to six tablets a week, and that suppresses inflammation. The drug has been used against psoriasis for many years. A side effect that may occur is that the liver is affected. By regularly taking blood samples you are usually able to avoid side effects. Methotrexate can cause deformities in fetuses. Therefore, contraception should be used during treatment, this applies to both men and women, and you should stop taking the medication three months before a planned pregnancy. You should also avoid the drug when breastfeeding.

Acitetrin

Acitetrin has evolved from vitamin A and dapens the first cell growth but also makes sure that the cells in the epidermis may grow well and thus reduces the scaling. If the drug is combined with creams, ointments and light reading becomes more efficient. The levels of blood fats increase slightly when taking acitetrin and needs to be checked during the treatment. Acitetrin can give birth defects and should not be used by women over 40.

Cyclosporin

Cyclosporin is usually used in connection with organ transplants. It is also used in psoriasis care and reduces inflammation of the skin quickly and scaling is diminished. While cyclosporine is an effective medication it can also have very strong side effects. You can get high blood pressure and kidney function could be affected. To avoid the side effects you need to regularly check the kidney function and measure blood pressure. It should be avoided if you are pregnant. However, you can still get it under certain conditions, if it is important to recieve immune depressant treatment. You should always consult your doctor before a planned pregnancy. The medicine is used most often when the disease psoriasis suddenly gets worse, and you take it in periods of three to six months.

Biological Treatments

During inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, the disease activity can be alleviated by drugs called TNF-alpha inhibitors. These drugs can also help when you have psoriasis. The effect varies from person to person depending on the type of psoriasis you have. Today there are different TNF-alpha inhibitors on the market. Most people can be helped by these drugs and for a time almost entirely symptom-free. Drugs are taken with a syringe. A side effect is that the medication can cause you to become more vulnerable to infections. The treatment is relatively new.

X-ray Treatment

If you have psoriasis of the scalp it can be treated with a soft X-ray. It is treated with weak X-rays and it is just the outer skin layer that is affected. The method can also be used if you have difficult to treat psoriasis on small parts of the skin in other parts of the body, such as on the ears or in the groin area. You receive treatment at a clinic once a week for six weeks, but rarely receive treatment for more than a total of eight six-week periods.

Climate Care Abroad

Ordinary sunlight usually have a healing effect on psoriasis because it suppresses inflammation, and the excessively fast growth of cells in the skin. Climate Care means staying about three weeks in a warm and sunny climate to give the skin natural light.

What Can You Do Yourself?

If you do not have as much trouble there is much we can do to alleviate the skin rash. Sometimes the symptoms can even disappear for a period of time. A simple tip is to take a warm bath or sauna so that the skin flakes of the scaly skin falls off. You can also get rid of the scaly patches of scalp and skin using a ointment or cream containing salicylic acid, for example. If you have psoriasis on your feet, a occational foot-bath be useful in combination with an oily ointment or cream.

If You Become Seriously Ill

If you have psoriasis, which is so severe that both life and work are affected should ask for a referral to a dermatologist for the best treatment possible. On skin care clinics there are doctors and nurses who have extensive experience in treating severe discomfort caused by various skin diseases.

Living With Psoriasis

It may take a long time to get used to have psoriasis, but we usually get through the crisis and accept that we have a chronic disease that we must learn to live with. Eventually, you will be able to have a good life despite the disease. It is important that we try to receive guidance and answers to all the questions that comes up. If you have psoriasis, it is important to have regular contact with health professionals who have special knowledge about the disease.