Is psoriasis contagious? Does psoriasis affect health? Can psoriasis be cured? How should I treat it? What should I pay attention to during the day? This article will answer all your questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Can psoriasis be cured?
Answer: At present, psoriasis cannot be absolutely cured, but it can be well controlled and relieved, and even achieve long-term clinical cure. All the advertisements of “cure”, “cure” and “no recurrence” are deceiving, all, all, all, the important thing to say three times, to the so-called The “genetic”, “blood exchange”, “blood purification”, “ancestral secret recipe”, “special effect pure Chinese medicine” and “special effects” are all fraudulent. The use of so-called “genes”, “blood exchange”, “blood purification”, “ancestral secret formula”, “special effect pure Chinese medicine” and some toxic single prescriptions and test prescriptions should be cautious and not fall for them.
Question: What does psoriasis look like?
Answer: Psoriasis of the common type accounts for 90% of the cases, manifesting as scaly erythematous plaques, which can develop all over the body and are mostly symmetrically distributed, with the scalp and the extremities more common, especially the elbows, knees and sacral tail. The surface is covered with thick silvery white scales, and after gently scraping off the scales, a smooth film can be seen underneath, and after scraping again, multiple small bleeding spots can appear. The above-mentioned scales, thin film and punctate bleeding are the three major clinical features of the disease. In addition to common psoriasis, there are also special types such as pustular, arthritic and erythrodermic types.
Figure: Psoriasis vulgaris: scaly erythematous plaques with a large number of silvery white scales
Question: Can psoriasis grow only on the scalp?
Answer: Psoriasis often involves the scalp and manifests itself as dark red scaly plaques beyond the hairline, with bundle-like changes in the hair. Some patients with psoriasis may have only the scalp involved, with no lesions on other parts of the body, called scalp psoriasis.
Figure: Scalp psoriasis: hair in bundles
Question: Can psoriasis cause “gray nails”?
Answer: Nearly 80% of psoriasis can have nail damage, which can be manifested as turbid thickening of the nail plate and dotted (thimble-like) depression, especially turbid thickening, much like onychomycosis (gray nails), which experienced doctors can generally distinguish. Fungal exclusion can be checked if necessary; after all, there are a few psoriasis patients with onychomycosis.
Figure: Nail changes in psoriasis
Question: Is psoriasis life-threatening?
Answer: Psoriasis vulgaris does not affect the internal organs and is not life-threatening, and cannot be equated with “skin cancer”. Therefore, it is very important to standardize the treatment, especially not to over-treat. However, pustular, arthritic and erythrodermic psoriasis may affect health and should be actively treated in time.
Question: Is psoriasis contagious?
Answer: Psoriasis is not directly caused by infection, so it is not contagious to others. However, infection sometimes becomes a trigger for the occurrence of psoriasis (e.g., punctate psoriasis), so it is sometimes treated with antibiotics.
Q: Is psoriasis hereditary? Does it affect fertility?
Answer: Psoriasis has a hereditary tendency, so people with psoriasis in their families have a significantly higher risk of developing psoriasis than the general population. However, the onset of psoriasis is affected by the interaction of many factors such as heredity and the environment. In China, the chance of children born to psoriasis patients suffering from psoriasis suffering from psoriasis suffering from psoriasis is not high, so psoriasis patients can get married and have children normally. However, when psoriasis patients consider pregnancy, they should choose to conceive only after the condition is mild or stable and the drugs that affect embryonic development or have teratogenic effects need to be stopped for a certain period of time.
Q: What factors can affect the development of psoriasis?
Answer.
(1) Infection is a common cause of psoriasis. Tonsillitis and pharyngitis often trigger psoriasis attacks.
(2) Mental factors: depressive states or stressful events can trigger or aggravate psoriasis.
(3) Endocrine factors: low blood calcium is related to the development of psoriasis.
(4) Lifestyle: alcohol consumption, smoking and obesity can all affect the prognosis of psoriasis.
(5) Drugs: unreasonable use of drugs or sudden discontinuation of drugs can lead to psoriasis attacks.
Question: How should I treat psoriasis?
Answer: At present, the various treatments for psoriasis can only improve the recent symptoms, reduce the frequency of attacks and prolong the inter-episode period, but cannot prevent recurrence and eradicate it completely. Patients should correctly understand the disease characteristics of psoriasis, lift the mental burden, maintain a good and positive state of mind, and do a good job of daily care and health care. During the period of psoriasis attack, patients should go to the regular hospital in time and cooperate with the physician for reasonable treatment.
Q: Does psoriasis vulgaris need to be treated?
Answer: Although common psoriasis does not affect health, recurrent attacks affect the patient’s quality of life, and appropriate treatment is necessary according to the condition.
Q: How to treat psoriasis?
Answer: Since common psoriasis accounts for 90% of cases, only common treatments for common psoriasis are briefly introduced here.
● Mild and moderate psoriasis: Topical medication is the main treatment. Hormonal ointment and vitamin D3 derivatives can be used in combination, and after control, vitamin D3 derivatives will be the main treatment to maintain the efficacy.
● Moderate and severe psoriasis: In addition to external medication, comprehensive treatment such as phototherapy and systemic medication can be carried out;
● Severe psoriasis: Biological agents or immunosuppressive agents can be used according to the patient’s own condition.
In addition, the use of irritating topical drugs should be avoided in the progressive stage of common psoriasis and acute punctate psoriasis. The formulation of the treatment plan and the selection of drug use need to be carried out under the guidance of physicians and according to the specific conditions and drug characteristics of patients, so as to reduce the occurrence of adverse drug reactions.
Commonly used drugs and treatment methods
1.Topical drugs
(1) Vitamin D3 derivatives: such as calcipotriol ointment, which is more effective for plaque psoriasis and effective for mild and moderate psoriasis, should be avoided on the face and skin folds, and each treatment should not exceed 40% of the body surface area. Tacalcitol ointment is relatively less irritating and can be tried on the face and glans.
(2) Glucocorticoids: such as compound flumethasone ointment, halometasone ointment, mometasone furoate ointment, etc., mainly used for persistent lesions, should avoid long-term large area, otherwise it is easy to produce adverse reactions and sudden discontinuation of the “rebound” phenomenon.
(3) Retinoic acid: such as tazarotene ointment, can be used in combination with strong hormones to treat mild to moderate psoriasis, pregnant women, lactating women and women with recent childbirth requirements are prohibited.
(4) Keratin contributing agents or exfoliating agents: such as salicylic acid, coal tar, anthralin, etc., should not be used in the folds because of local irritation.
(5) Immunosuppressants: such as tacrolimus ointment, pimecrolimus ointment, etc., can be used with hormones or vitamin D3 derivatives.
2.Physical therapy
Narrow-spectrum medium-wave ultraviolet (NB-UVB) therapy, photochemotherapy (PUVA), bath therapy, etc. are available. For limited psoriasis, 308 excimer laser is a good choice.
3.Systematic medication
(1)Retinoic acid: such as Avionics, used for severe common psoriasis, pustular psoriasis, erythrodermic psoriasis, etc. It has more satisfactory efficacy when taken alone or in combination with other therapies, but it has teratogenic effect, and elevated blood lipids can appear when taken for a long time, which can be restored by stopping the drug.
(2) Immunosuppressants: such as methotrexate, cyclosporine A and other immunosuppressants, mainly used for severe psoriasis, are not routinely used.
(3) Biological therapy: such as etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, etc. It is suitable for moderate and severe psoriasis. However, the expensive price limits the application.
(4) Glucocorticoids: This class of drugs should not be used routinely and systematically for common psoriasis, even for erythrodermic, acute arthritic and generalized pustular psoriasis.
(5) Antibiotics: Acute punctate psoriasis is often accompanied by acute tonsillitis or upper respiratory tract infection, and penicillin and erythromycin can be applied. Pan-onset pustular psoriasis can be treated with methomycin, clindamycin, etc.
4.Chinese medicine treatment
Chinese medicines such as compound Qing Dai, compound glycyrrhizin and Lei Gong Tang can be applied.
Note: The prescription drugs in the text should be used under the guidance of doctors after clear diagnosis.