A chronic, incurable disease characterized by the appearance of red scaly patches on the surface of the skin is called psoriasis or lichen scaly. Unfortunately, psoriasis is one of the most common skin conditions today. Moreover, women are more susceptible to it than men. It is also upsetting that psoriasis manifests itself at a young age, before the age of 30, causing a lot of aesthetic, psychological and physical troubles to the patient.
Psoriasis symptoms
To correctly diagnose the disease, you must first of all know all its symptoms, and the treatment of psoriasis , or rather a set of therapeutic measures, should be prescribed based on the general clinical picture. What are the main symptoms of psoriasis?
A characteristic sign of the disease is the presence on the skin of the so-called psoriasis plaques – pink-red spots with a diameter of 1 to 3 cm. The surface of the plaques is covered with a thin scaly layer of silvery-white color. As the disease progresses, the plaques grow and coalesce to form large areas of skin lesions. As a rule, psoriasis plaques are located at the bends of the joints of the limbs, on the torso and on the scalp.
New spots may appear on the skin from recent injuries or from scratching. If you try to scrape off a plaque of psoriasis, you can see signs characteristic of the disease – peeling of the skin intensifies, a shiny, moist skin is found under the upper loose layer, and then drops of blood appear on its surface.
Depending on the type of disease, its symptoms change somewhat , and the treatment of psoriasis in this case will be directed to the part of the body that is most affected. The form of psoriasis is usual (vulgar), the symptoms of which we discussed above, exudative, when a grayish-yellow scaly crust forms on the surface of psoriasis plaques. The most severe forms are pustular, psoriatic arthritis and psoriatic erythroderma, which can develop both from the very onset of the disease and as a result of certain unfavorable factors that aggravate the disease.
Almost always, psoriasis is accompanied by damage to the nail plates, which acquire an irregular shape, turn yellow, become too thick and peel off at the end from the nail bed.
Psoriasis treatment
As already mentioned, modern medicine cannot completely cure psoriasis. Therefore, the disease is always chronic, although it does not pose a threat to the patient’s life. Having identified the main symptoms, the dermatologist prescribes the treatment of psoriasis individually in each case. In this case, priority is given to external therapy, due to which the external symptoms of the disease are reduced.
The effectiveness of psoriasis treatment depends on the age, gender, professional activity of the patient, his psychological state, and health. In addition, when developing a complex of therapeutic measures, factors such as the type, prevalence, duration and characteristics of the course of the disease are taken into account. When prescribing treatment, the doctor will certainly establish the nature and stage of the disease in order to completely exclude factors that can provoke a deterioration in the clinical picture.
For the treatment of psoriasis, a combined effect on the patient’s body of various procedures and activities is used, ranging from medication and physiotherapy, the use of medicinal ointments and topical creams, adherence to a special diet, and psychotherapeutic work with the patient, ending with non-traditional methods of treatment, such as reflexology, the use of herbal remedies and traditional medicine recipes. Despite the fact that psoriasis is incurable, the complex application of all these techniques can achieve a significant improvement in the patient’s condition and long-term remission of the disease.