Saw Dermatologist today

[Cowsaregreat]

Hi Cowsaregreat I'm glad that you have seen a specialist about your psoriasis and he is right you do need to get on the NHS system then you can move forward and begin to find something that works

I would like to contradict him and say injections of biological treatments would almost certainly help control the psoriasis

But I will also say that you are unlikely to get a biological drug on the NHS until you have been through cheaper options and failed with them
They will start you on topical steroid based creams and ointments or the vitamin d derivative ointments
These may well work but they are something you shouldn't use long term

After the creams come the oral treatments methotrexate, cyclosporine, acetretin and skilarence

I myself am on skilarence and have been clear on it and have been taking it in the form of fumaderm then skilarence for the last 7 years and now have just a couple of small stubborn spots in my scalp that won't clear up but the rest is clear and I lead a life with Barely a thought about psoriasis
At the start there were side effects that were unpleasant and the worst for me was the abdominal cramps that did on occasions double me up with pain and also you tend to get flushes the side effects for me only lasted about half an hour a day but I stuck with it after having 50 years with the problem and short term fixes with cream and uv treatment and after a few months the side effects got less and less and now I get the occasional flush and sometimeschave to drop everything and do a toilet dash

I'm not saying to start it's easy and it's not a fast acting drug, but if it works for you you can look forward hopefully to a lengthy time clear of plaques

I can't speak about other orals like acetretin or cyclosporine but will say I had a spell on methotrexate which worked well but I gave it up in the end as I would rather be covered in psoriasis than feel as wretched as I did taking it

Now the NHS will be unlikely to advance you to biological injections until you have failed on at least 2 of the above treatments

Unfortunately we all react to drugs differently and what works for me may not work for you it is a matter of trial and error but try to get appointments with the hospital at no more than three monthly intervals when you start in case the treatments don't work and it should be apparent at 3 months if it's working or not

That's my two penneth I hope it's not made it more confusing for you

Jim

Thank you. Great help. I feel like I’ve ‘done’ the majority of the topicals through my GP. I’ll continue reading up on the different orals. I’m willing to try anything, so fingers crossed 2020 could become less about psoriasis for me!!