Treatment Options For Psoriasis
Psoriasis is somewhat complicated to treat, just like all the other autoimmune diseases. There are lots of treatment options and your physician may recommend one or a combination of two or more of treatment therapies, depending upon the severity of your particular condition. Here are the alternatives.
Topical applications
Your physician may recommend certain medicated ointments, foams, shampoos or gels, irrespective of how severe or mild your psoriasis is. You will need to use these cortico-steroidal products; even in conjugation with other therapies that you may have to undergo to keep your psoriasis under control.
Light therapy
In this therapy, ultra violet rays are used to retard the rate at which new skin cells develop. The UV rays help in slowing down the skin cell regeneration and this therapy is mostly used when topical applications fail to deliver the desired results.
PUVA treatment
It’s a combination therapy in which psoralen, a drug, is used in addition to UV-A rays. This drug increases the skins sensitivity and thus allows better absorption of the UV rays. This is highly effective but is used only in severe cases because its continued use can lead to some side effects like nausea and headaches, while making you more susceptible to skin cancer.
UV-B Light treatment
This is used only in case you are suffering from plaque psoriasis, and as the name is indicative, in this treatment your skin will be exposed to UV-B light rays. It may also be combined with some tropical applications for better results. The results are relatively quicker and you may see the lesions disappearing within two to three weeks, and the best part is that it has very little side effects.
Apart from these therapies and topical ointments your physician may also prescribe some oral medication and injections, such as cyclosporine, acitretin, methotrexate and etanercept. Most of these drugs are strong and may leave you with severe side effects.
