Patients with severe disease have reduced life expectancy, but we don’t know why.
In addition to its effects on skin and joints, psoriasis is associated with various comorbidities, including alcoholism, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and lymphoma, many of which reduce life expectancy. Investigators retrospectively evaluated whether patients with psoriasis have a higher risk for death or a shorter life span than the general population. From the General Practice Research Database, an extensive repository of cumulative medical records for more than 9 million patients in the U.K., they identified more than 130,000 patients with mild psoriasis and nearly 4000 with severe psoriasis (those requiring phototherapy, systemic medications, or both).
Compared with randomly selected controls from the database without a psoriasis dia…
Reviewing Author
DisclosuresConsultant / Advisory board Astellas Pharmaceuticals
EquityVaxin
Grant / Research support NIH; NIH/NCI; Veteran’s Administration; Ferndale Laboratories; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Pharma, Inc.
Editorial boards Cancer Prevention Research; Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, & Photomedicine; UpToDate; eMedicine; Journal of Dermatological Sciences; JAMA Dermatology
Leadership positions in professional societies American Academy of Dermatology (Vice Chair, Committee on Science and Research); Photomedicine Society (Board of Directors)
DisclosuresConsultant / Advisory board Astellas Pharmaceuticals
EquityVaxin
Grant / Research support NIH; NIH/NCI; Veteran’s Administration; Ferndale Laboratories; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Pharma, Inc.
Editorial boards Cancer Prevention Research; Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, & Photomedicine; UpToDate; eMedicine; Journal of Dermatological Sciences; JAMA Dermatology
Leadership positions in professional societies American Academy of Dermatology (Vice Chair, Committee on Science and Research); Photomedicine Society (Board of Directors)