Hi to all,

Finally, I found some people just like me, I’m so happy to be a member in your group, hope I can share my experience with you.

Do you have psoriasis and have 15 minutes per week to spare? Then why not come and join us here and help others.  Your support or information could be valuable to others.

Psoriasis Club is looking for more friendly people to come and help others. Maybe you have experience with a certain drug or natural treatment for psoriasis. You may just have a kind nature and are willing to listen to others when they are feeling down. With a bit of luck you may be a comedian and could post something to make us laugh in the Off Topic section.

It would take around 15 minutes a week to login and see what new posts or threads have been made that need an answer or support. Can't spare 15 minutes?
No problem just get Notification of new threads and posts

You may have joined us but no longer need help or support. you may have found something that works for you and your happy with the results. but please take just 15 minutes a week to login and share with others. We're all in it together

Psoriasis Club is totally self-funded and does not rely on sponsors or donations, but we do need input from others who understand what it's like to live with psoriasis. If you fit the bill please join us now and feel part of a friendly group of people.

Spammers, Trolls, or Cyberbullies need not apply.

Thank you.

Fred.

Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has any experience with Remicade? I'm currently using stelara, had really positive effects in the first couple of month's but my psoriasis doesn't seem to cope too well with the big gap inbetween injections, and after enquiring with my dermatologist, there is no scope to have injections more frequently :-( I've tried everything else apart from Remicade, so this is what is being suggested I try now. Anyone have any experiences, whether positive or negative? Thanks for reading :-)

I was wondering if anyone else was using Enbrel and what have the result been.

Hi,
Just thought I would say a quick hello to everyone, it's so good to find a forum like this, I've suffered with psoriasis for a while and it's pretty widespread, will be nice to chat to fellow sufferers :-)

Would you swallow the eggs of a pig parasite to help your psoriasis?

Coronado Biosciences Inc Massachusetts, is developing what it hopes will be the first in a new class of treatments for autoimmune conditions such as psoriasis. Each dose of the drug consists of thousands of microscopic parasite eggs, culled from pig faeces, suspended in a tablespoon of saline solution to be swallowed.

In a pig, the eggs would grow into mature whipworms and reproduce, without harming their host. In humans, the same eggs barely survive two weeks. Yet in that short period they appear to modulate a patient's immune system and prevent it from attacking the body's own tissues and organs.

"It has the potential not only to be a drug but to provide insight into the cause of these diseases," said Dr. Joel Weinstock, chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston and an adviser to Coronado.

The company is preparing to enroll 220 patients with Crohn's disease in a midstage clinical trial. Participants will receive either a dose with 7,500 eggs from a pig whipworm or a placebo once every two weeks for 12 weeks.

Coronado's partner, German drugmaker Dr. Falk Pharma GmbH, is conducting a midstage trial of the drug, known as trichuris suis ova (TSO), in Europe. The two companies plan to share data when filing for marketing approval in 2016 or 2017.

The technology behind Coronado's product was developed by Weinstock and researchers at the University of Iowa, where Weinstock was affiliated before Tufts. It is based on the "hygiene hypothesis," which holds that many developed countries have, in some ways, become too clean for their own good.

Millions of organisms, including viruses, bacteria and worms, enter the body through contact with dirt. Researchers believe many of these organisms are needed to train the body's immune system to recognize and fight disease.

Studies have shown that the incidence of autoimmune disease tends to be highest in the developed world, and is highest there among upper-income groups. Weinstock and others hypothesize that the elimination of certain intestinal parasites may have led to the loss in some individuals of a key mechanism for modulating the immune system.

"With the pig whipworm, there is no permanent infection, no real possible side effects," he said.

Sandage said about a third of patients experience some gastrointestinal discomfort, such as diarrhea or cramping, after the first or second dose, though the symptoms typically go away after a day or two.

"What we know from the pig whipworm is that when you give it to people, it is destroyed in the gut," said Fleming. "It doesn't come out, so you have to keep giving it."

Initial results from early trials of the drug in patients with multiple sclerosis are promising, he said, though much more study will be needed to prove efficacy.

Source: reuters.com

Psychological interventions such as habit reversal, relaxation and cognitive behavioural therapy have for the first time been shown to help prevent skin conditions, University of Sheffield experts have found

A team from the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield analysed the combined results of previous studies and determined that psychological interventions provide benefits to patients with skin conditions like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

Skin conditions have long been associated with psychological distress but for the first time interventions such as habit reversal, relaxation, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and other psychological interventions have been found to help end suffering.

Following analysis of 22 studies involving more than 900 participants the team at the University of Sheffield concluded that there was evidence of benefits but also that there was the need to develop further specific interventions and to conduct more rigorous evaluation of these, including assessments of effects over longer follow-up periods and a wider range of skin conditions.

From their evaluation they found that psychological interventions had a medium-sized effect on skin conditions but that a number of different factors influenced the effectiveness of the interventions, including: the type of intervention, the time interval between the end of the intervention and follow-up, and the type of outcome.

The number of skin conditions represented by the study was small but a medium-sized effect was seen for interventions treating psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The analysis showed that psychological interventions generally had less effect on skin conditions accompanied by pain.

From the studies analysed only four types of intervention were well enough represented for analysis: Habit reversal, CBT, arousal reduction and combined techniques. Habit reversal had the largest effect size, followed by CBT (medium to large) and arousal reduction and combined techniques (medium).

Although the duration of the intervention did not have a great impact on effectiveness, the length of time between the end of the intervention and the follow-up did have a significant impact with longer follow-up periods being associated with smaller effects, suggesting that there may be a need to provide booster sessions.

Group therapies appeared to be as effective as one-to-one sessions. However, the authors also drew attention to the finding that age was negatively associated with effect sizes, for example the older the person was, the less effective the psychological intervention was.

Source: shef.ac.uk

Hi All
I am so pleased I registered with the Psoriasis Club. Just reading the comments posted by fellow sufferers as eased my mind regarding my current treatment.
I have recently stopped using methotrexate after 1 year due to the effects it was having on my liver and was prescribed Fumaderm in July 2012. I am currently on 2 Blue tablets per day and the stomach cramps are already unbearable. I was contemplating stopping this treatment but my psoriasis is at an all-time high.
Is there any other treatment I could consider?
Danny

Objective: 
To assess whether patients with psoriasis treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors have a decreased risk of *myocardial infarction (MI) compared with those not treated with TNF inhibitors.

Design: 
Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: 
Kaiser Permanente Southern California health plan.

Patients: 
Patients with at least 3 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, codes for psoriasis (696.1) or psoriatic arthritis (696.0) (without antecedent MI) between January 1, 2004, and November 30, 2010.

Main Outcome Measure: 
Incident MI.

Results: 
Of 8845 patients included: 1673 received a TNF inhibitor for at least 2 months (TNF inhibitor cohort), 2097 were TNF inhibitor naive and received other systemic agents or phototherapy (oral/phototherapy cohort), and 5075 were not treated with TNF inhibitors, other systemic therapies, or phototherapy (topical cohort). The median duration of follow-up was 4.3 years (interquartile range, 2.9-5.5 years), and the median duration of TNF inhibitor therapy was 685 days (interquartile range, 215-1312 days). After adjusting for MI risk factors, the TNF inhibitor cohort had a significantly lower hazard of MI compared with the topical cohort (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.32-0.79). The incidence of MI in the TNF inhibitor, oral/phototherapy, and topical cohorts were 3.05, 3.85, and 6.73 per 1000 patient-years, respectively.

Conclusions: 
Use of TNF inhibitors for psoriasis was associated with a significant reduction in MI risk and incident rate compared with treatment with topical agents. Use of TNF inhibitors for psoriasis was associated with a non–statistically significant lower MI incident rate compared with treatment with oral agents/phototherapy.

Source: archderm.jamanetwork.com

*Myocardial Infarction (MI) is commonly known as a heart attack.

This has really frustrated me today and played on my mind a lot, so I just want to vent a bit.
I know deep down I should know better and not judge and I feel like a bad person!

I had a call today from someone who needed to re-home their dog which they have had the past 5 years, their reason Psoriasis!!!v

As a dog lover and owner and a sufferer of the condition it has really struck a cord with me.

I have been so bad to the point I cannot dress myself but I do and I just push on through and still I manage to walk my dog and care for him, I also know that if I am very bad there are treatments and it's only a matter of time before I can start and the meds kick in.

I feel awful for my lack of sympathy but I get so many phone calls about people needing to re-home. And if the person who called is reading this I do apologise I don't know your own situation and I really hope you find relief soon.

I used Dovonex when it first came out and omg I was in agony the itching was unbearable. Had Diprosalic, dithranol in lassars paste all strengths, methatrexate, and the only thing I used which cleared my skin within a week was Psorigan and as it was only cosmetically approved and not medically approved it was taken off the market. I wish I had bought loads of it at the time. Also had PUVA and ultra violet and at moment using a solution of coal tar and aqueous solution.

Hi all, yesterday I said I received an email from someone called billy who was a mechanic. He was in despair and was thinking of blowing his head off. he said the psoriasis was in his finger nails and toenails and sounded so distraught. I did reply to him through a yahoo email. Unfortunately I cannot find it to copy and paste for you all to see. I tried to say to him that it was harder for a female especially in this hot weather as I cannot wear shoes as the pressure hurts my toes and wearing sandals is a definate no no for me. Maybe I said the wrong thing to him and now I am a bit worried because if he is not a member here then why did I get the email. please help

A Rochester Institute of Technology NY (RIT) team is seeking to improve the diagnosis and assessment of psoriasis through the creation of a multimodal, image-based analysis system. The project seeks to improve treatment for individual patients and allow for enhanced longitudinal studies of psoriasis.

"Presently, dermatologists use a method called the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score to analyze affected areas of the skin," notes Christye Sisson, professor of biomedical photography at RIT and leader of the project team. "However, the process can be very subjective as each dermatologist could potentially 'grade' patients differently."

The lack of empirical data can make it difficult to compare assessments made by different dermatologists or by different research groups studying the disease.

"Through the use of novel imaging technologies we are seeking to create a standardized and repeatable process that will be more accurate and allow for better assessment across populations," Sisson adds.

Sisson is working with Francisco Tausk, MD, a professor of dermatology at University of Rochester Medical Center, to create an imaging tool based on anomaly detection software which has previously been used in remote sensing applications. The tool will include multiple imaging modalities and assess the area of coverage based on the three criteria currently used by the PASI score: thickness, redness, and scale.

The team is currently testing imaging techniques, including thermal, ultra violet reflectance, and LIDAR, to identify the best method for assessing each criteria. They will then work with the University of Rochester to assess severity on current psoriasis patients and compare it to the PASI scores for each person.

Sisson and Tausk hope to ultimately create a standardized multimodal imaging system that could be implemented by dermatologists and hospitals nationwide.

"By modifying imaging technology that has already been developed we can create a repeatable, quantifiable method for diagnosing and ultimately treating patients with this disease," Sisson says.

Source: rit.edu

Hi, new here, I developed Psoriasis at 10/11 years old, it went mad in my mid teens then disappeared, has now flared up again over the last two years & just wondering if hormones are a key factor as I have been going through menapause?

I hate my skin so much the only time im happy is when im driving my motorcycle

i'm in trials in barrie ontario and have had plecbo for the first 10 weeks im very bummed anyone else in the same boat as me ?

In case you didn't know August is psoriasis awareness week in USA.
Lots of details are on facebook (national psoriasis association) they are also running a photo competition!

I couldn't enter as in the UK but I posted my first ever psoriasis showing picture on Facebook to get into the spirit of things!

Perrigo Company  today announced that it has received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its abbreviated new drug application for clobetasol propionate shampoo, 0.05%, the generic equivalent of Clobex® Shampoo. Perrigo will commence shipment of the product immediately.

Clobetasol propionate shampoo, 0.05%, is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe scalp psoriasis. Perrigo's Chairman, President and CEO Joseph C. Papa stated, "This is another example of our Rx team's commitment to launching difficult to manufacture extended topical products. We are excited to market this product and are dedicated to making quality healthcare more affordable."

Perrigo Company is a leading global healthcare supplier that develops, manufactures and distributes OTC and generic prescription (Rx) pharmaceuticals, infant formulas, nutritional products, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). The Company is the world's largest manufacturer of OTC pharmaceutical products and infant formulas, both for the store brand market. The Company's primary markets and locations of manufacturing and logistics operations are the United States, Israel, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Background:
Despite widespread dissatisfaction and low treatment persistence in moderate to severe psoriasis, patients' reasons behind treatment discontinuation remain poorly understood.

Objectives:
We sought to characterize patient-reported reasons for discontinuing commonly used treatments for moderate to severe psoriasis in real-world clinical practice.

Methods:
A total of 1095 patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis from 10 dermatology practices who received systemic treatments completed a structured interview. Eleven reasons for treatment discontinuation were assessed for all past treatments.

Results:
A total of 2231 past treatments were reported. Median treatment duration varied by treatment, ranging from 6.0 to 20.5 months (P < .001). The frequency of each cited discontinuation reasons differed by treatment (all P < .01). Patients who received etanercept (odds ratio [OR] 5.19; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.23-8.33) and adalimumab (OR 2.10; 95% CI 1.20-3.67) were more likely to cite a loss of efficacy than those who received methotrexate. Patients who received etanercept (OR 0.34; 95% CI 0.23-0.49), adalimumab (OR 0.48; 95% CI 0.30-0.75), and ultraviolet B phototherapy (OR 0.21; 95% CI 0.14-0.31) were less likely to cite side effects than those who received methotrexate, whereas those who received acitretin (OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.08-2.25) were more likely to do so. Patients who underwent ultraviolet B phototherapy were more likely to cite an inability to afford treatment (OR 7.03; 95% CI 3.14-15.72).

Conclusions:
Different patterns of treatment discontinuation reasons are important to consider when developing public policy and evidence-based treatment approaches to improve successful long-term psoriasis control.

Source: jaad.org

GlaxoSmithKline and Rosa to Present Psoriasis Collaboration Results at 17th International IRA Conference.

Rosa & Co. LLC, a drug development advisory firm with expertise in drug-disease modeling and simulation, today announced that results from its Psoriasis PhysioPD collaboration with Stiefel, a GSK Company, will be presented at the 17th International Inflammation Research Association Conference in Lake George, NY, September 9-13th, 2012. Dr. Betty Hussey, Director, Clinical Pharmacology of GSK will present a poster entitled "Physiological model to investigate and prioritize targets for psoriasis".

The presentation will describe the development and use of a custom-designed Psoriasis PhysioMap® which provided information and methodology to enable key decisions in early development target prioritization. The map was built using literature data and then critically reviewed by R&D scientists and disease experts. The presentation will show how the map was used to evaluate the roles of drug targets in disease pathways, their potential interactions, and their relative contributions to efficacy potential. This process has informed the selection and prioritization of drug development targets, and it set the stage for development of a quantitative PhysioPD model that will further elucidate and prioritize target potential.

"We are pleased to share the initial results from our ongoing collaboration with GSK", said Dr. Rebecca Baillie, Chief Scientist, PhysioPD at Rosa. "The results of this collaboration show the business value and scientific usefulness of developing a Psoriasis PhysioMap. The PhysioMap development process was critical for establishing a common understanding of the key data and material uncertainties relevant to psoriasis and providing a framework to facilitate cross-functional communication within GSK."