Article topics: Dermatology, Psoriasis, Screening, Side-effects, Systemic treatments
This series has addressed the treatments for psoriasis as advised by
the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2017). This condition affects between 1.3-2.2% of the population (Parisi et al, 2011). It is recognised that psoriasis can have a significant impact on mood, mental health, poor lifestyle choices (Cohen et al, 2016; Landriscina et al, 2016), reduced activities of daily living, and is linked with other comorbidities, such as diabetes (Armstrong, 2013) and cardiovascular disease (Rutter et al, 2016). NICE developed a treatment pathway, advising bland emollients, topical treatments, phototherapy, systemic medications and systemic non-biological and biologic therapy. In recent years, the latter options have increased dramatically. This article focuses on the more traditional systemic
treatments, as advised by NICE.