Dr Edward W. Cowen Addresses Current Management of Pustular Psoriasis

With no currently established standard of care for pustular psoriasis, treatment considerations depend on the extent and type of disease present in patients, said Edward W. Cowen, MD, MHSc, senior clinician and acting branch chief, Dermatology Branch, National Institutes of Health.

Transcript

Can you speak on the current standard of care for pustular psoriasis, including screening and treatment?

There really is not a specific standard of care based on current National Psoriasis Foundation guidelines for pustular psoriasis. Treatment does need to be tailored to the patient and will be determined by the extent of their disease, and whether or not they have systemic symptoms.

Many patients may have localized disease, which might be controllable with just aggressive topical therapy. However, other patients with difficult-to-control disease or with generalized disease will often require systemic treatment. So, this could include immunosuppressive therapies like cyclosporine or methotrexate, systemic retinoids like acitretin, or often some of the newer biologic therapies.