Topical Treatments For Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

Main Category: Eczema / Psoriasis
Also Included In: Dermatology
Article Date: 16 Apr 2009 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Chronic plaque psoriasis is the most common type of psoriasis and is characterised by redness, thickness and scaling. First line management of chronic plaque psoriasis is with topical treatments, including vitamin D analogues, topical corticosteroids, tar-based preparations, dithranol, salicylic acid and topical retinoids.

Extract from Implications for Practice

Evidence from large numbers of trials indicates that most of the topical treatments tested in the trials reviewed here alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis. However, it was not possible to assess the performance of treatments at different levels of severity of psoriasis. The evidence suggests that vitamin D products are more effective than emollient alone. Potent and very potent corticosteroids are also effective and very potent corticosteroids are more effective than either potent corticosteroids or vitamin D products. The effectiveness of dithranol and tazarotene appears to be similar to that of vitamin D products.

(CD005028) by Mason Anne et al

The Cochrane Library contains high quality health care information, including Systematic Reviews from The Cochrane Collaboration. These Reviews bring together research on the effects of health care and are considered the gold standard for determining the relative effectiveness of different interventions. The Cochrane Collaboration is a UK registered international charity and the world's leading producer of systematic Reviews. It has been demonstrated that Cochrane Systematic Reviews are of comparable or better quality and are updated more often than the Reviews published in print journals.

The Cochrane Library can be accessed at http://www.thecochranelibrary.com. Guest users may access abstracts for all Reviews in the database, and members of the media may request full access to the contents of the Library.

Source
The Cochrane Library