If patients are not suitable for instrumental phototherapy due to economic reasons or due to inconvenient transportation or time, natural phototherapy can also be performed by skin application of psoralen preparation. This is a photosensitizing drug. At the site of application, the skin becomes more sensitive to the UVA component of sunlight and melanin deposits are easily formed to achieve the therapeutic effect.
Topical psoralen can be applied once a day, and patients need to control the time of sunlight by themselves. Generally speaking: 1, in the morning and evening, the main component of sunlight is UVA, while at noon is mainly UVB, so it is recommended to go out in the morning or afternoon, not recommended at noon; 2, patients can go out in the sun naturally after applying the medicine, because only in the diseased parts of the medicine, so there is no need to wear sunglasses, no need to cover other parts of the ear, mouth and nose with a scarf; 3, because of the patient’s increased sensitivity to light, sunlight too strong days are not recommended If patients need to go out, it is recommended that they cover their skin well to prevent sunburn; 4. When encountering continuous rainy weather, it is enough to suspend the application of medicine, which will only affect the speed of recovery and will not cause the disease to rebound.
Likewise, treatment with osteopontin should be followed up regularly. During the treatment period, hormones are used as usual and cannot be stopped on their own because of phototherapy. Since both osteopontin and hormone should be applied in the morning, it is recommended to apply them half an hour apart. Oral osteopontin treatment can cause many side effects such as liver and kidney toxicity, and has been basically discontinued in China; topical osteopontin has few side effects, but some patients may have overly sensitive skin and sunburn, and such patients are not suitable for phototherapy, and can consider switching to calcium-regulated phosphatase inhibitors, vitamin D3 derivatives, and topical treatment.
In addition, patients who have the conditions, can buy home portable small NBUVB treatment apparatus, at home, their own phototherapy.