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Getting To Psoriasis Through The Immune System Living With Psoriasis: Quality of Life On Treatment

Patient Experience With Psoriasis Therapies

Summary & Participants

For years people with psoriasis had options that were either time consuming or had difficult side effects. However the new science of biologics is offering treatments that may help people not only manage their disease but also clear psoriasis for months and sometimes years. Learn about this exciting new possibility for people with this difficult condition.

Medically Reviewed On: July 23, 2008

Webcast Transcript

BRIAN BALLESIO: People look at you a little bit different, and they'd start talking about you. Even though they don't know what it is, they'd say, "Hey, look at that guy. He's got that stuff all over his body, all over his hands."

ANNOUNCER: For Brian Ballesio, "that stuff" was psoriasis, an unsightly and even painful skin condition brought on by a disease of the immune system.

PAUL YAMAUCHI, MD: It's not simply a cosmetic disease of the skin, but it impacts the quality of their lives tremendously, interferes with their activities of daily living, things that we take for granted: going to the gym, going to the beach, swimming. It also affects interpersonal relationships with their significant other or families. In addition, it affects their schooling or their job performance because of the fact that they're covered with psoriasis, and it lowers their self-confidence and their self-esteem.

ANNOUNCER: There have been a variety of treatment options including topical creams, light therapy and oral medications. For people with widespread disease, the use of creams can be problematic.

NANCY BERNSTEIN: I found that I had to apply them to large areas of my body, and they usually come in a very small tube, so you wind up spending a lot of money and time trying to get, you know, enough medication to put over a large area.

PAUL YAMAUCHI, MD: For people with extensive psoriasis, it can be cumbersome to put topical creams all over their body. Patients tell me that it takes them like an hour a day just to put the creams on if they've had extensive psoriasis.

ANNOUNCER: Light therapy can serve as serve as an effective alternative. There are various forms of light therapy such as laser therapy, narrow band UVB, broad band UVB, and PUVA. PUVA is the most widely used. Although effective, it is still not without complications.

JERRY BAGEL, MD: You have to take pills before you come in for the light treatments and there's an increased frequency of skin cancer after 150 PUVA treatments. So the risks are greater, although you do get an average of six months of clearing after 30 treatments of PUVA, you still have to come in three times a week for PUVA treatments.

NANCY BERNSTEIN: I used to go two or three times a week before work, so I would have to get dressed in the morning, go in there, get undressed, do the treatment, get dressed again, go in to work.

ANNOUNCER: Systemic medications are another line of defense.

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