A guide to this common and treatable skin condition
Between 5.8 million and 7.5 million people live with the skin disease psoriasis, yet almost half with moderate to severe cases are not getting treatment and others are receiving out-of-date treatment. Why? Because the condition is still widely misunderstood—people who live with it can be subject to prejudice and discrimination—and treatments have not been very good until now.
“Just a few years ago, we didn’t have such great options,” says Steven Feldman, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. “That’s changed! Treatments are now more effective, safer, and easier to use than ever.”
Psoriasis is an often painful and itchy chronic skin condition that produces red, inflamed patches on the skin. The patches, which are not contagious, are usually covered with a white buildup of dead skin cells. Scientists are not sure what causes it, but they do know that psoriasis involves a genetic dysfunction that triggers an inappropriate immune response, leading to the rapid production of new skin cells.
