Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, responded to a startling new study showing an association between severe psoriasis and a significantly increased risk of death, by renewing calls for more psoriasis research. The study, by a team of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers, found patients with severe psoriasis have a 50% increased risk of mortality as compared to comparable people without psoriasis. In sum, the study found women with severe psoriasis died 4.4 years earlier than women without psoriasis, while men with severe psoriasis died an average of 3.5 years earlier than men without the disease.
“This disturbing new finding is further evidence of the need for psoriasis to receive its fair share of federal research funding,” said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now. “Even as funding for research on other diseases has doubled, psoriasis research funding has been stagnant. This study (available here) should be a wake-up call for Congress that psoriasis research funding is not only about their constituents’ health and quality of life but may literally be a life and death matter. One dollar per patient per year is not enough.”
He added: “It should also be a wake-up call for psoriasis patients. We have been passive and quiet for too long, and it is time we mobilized.”
Here are two places to start, RIGHT NOW: 1) Write your lawmakers about psoriasis. 2) Volunteer!
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