Complementary treatments for psoriasis

We are linking to an article from Belfast, Northern Ireland today that discusses psoriasis because it is a type of article frequently seen in newspapers across both North America and Europe, one that trivializes psoriasis and also endorses a double-standard in evaluating medical treatments. A loving wife writes in to a columnist about her husband:

My husband suffers dreadfully from psoriasis. His feet, legs, back, chest, groin, elbows, face, scalp are red, scaly and very flaky. He is constantly feeling discomfort. His condition has improved after having some light treatment at the hospital, but there is a long waiting list for him to go back.

From her description, this man has severe psoriasis, which has been helped by receiving either UVB or PUVA treatments (it is not clear which).

So what does the columnist suggest? A visit with a dermatologist to consider more aggressive treatments? (With patients reportedly waiting up to one year to see a derm in the UK, perhaps that is not an option.) The purchase of a home-UVB system? Writing to the House of Commons to urge health care reform to clear the long waits?

No. Instead, the man with severe psoriasis is told to cut back on pork and salt (there go the pork rinds), and take a bunch of potions no one has ever heard of.

The kicker, though, is this line:

[U]sing several other complementary therapies, such as light treatment, can be of benefit for psoriasis sufferers.

So ultraviolet light treatment, which has eight decades of proven clinical experience and testing behind it is called the "complimentary" treatment, while "Indian Pills" are for the really serious cases!

We see "advice" columns like this all the time in U.S. newspapers as well--in many of the same newspapers that howl in protest that the FDA is approving extensively-tested treatments too fast (after years, but not decades). Yet if you add the term "alternative" or "complimentary" to something, suddenly we are rude even to suggest that it undergo clinical testing or prove itself in a blind test. (Even the "Pepsi Challenge" is more rigorous a review than what many of these potions have undergone.)

By all means, if the best that medical science has to offer does not bring you relief from your psoriasis, then try other options that meet your standards for safety and credibility. But "Indian Pills" and Evening Primrose Oil are not going to solve the challenges faced by the tens of millions of people with psoriasis worldwide (and psoriasis has been around for thousands of years--long before Cheetos and hot dogs became dietary staples).

We need to get the public focus and attention directed on the promising research into areas like the immune system and psoriasis' genetic underpinnings, research that is improving our understanding of psoriasis and bringing us better treatments. This relentless drumbeat of your-ham-sandwich-gave-you-your-psoriasis simply undermines the all-important message that psoriasis is serious and deserves significant investments in biomedical research, not just a few bottles of Mrs. Dash Salt Substitute.