Psioriasis as physical and psychological discomfort

What is psioriasis?

Psioriasis is an inflammatory skin disease caused by an immune reaction. It usually manifests itself as macules or plaques on the skin, which are very often itchy.

Psioriasis as physical and psychological discomfort

Psioriasis is a problem at the physical level mainly because it consists of a succession of stages in its development. At some times it seems to get better, while at others it gets worse.

Psioriasis is usually mild, but there are also cases where it tends to be more moderate or even severe. As long as the psioriasis is up to moderate, it can be treated with topical medication without affecting the immune system too much.

Many people tend to think that psioriasis is also a psychological distress, not because of the disease itself but because of all its clinical manifestations. In more moderate psioriasis, there will be a lot of spots on the skin, sometimes puriginous, so some people tend to feel uncomfortable showing themselves in this way.

In other cases, actual pustules are created that make the sufferer very uncomfortable.
In this case the fear that the pustule is infectious can also spread among others, precisely because in the common imagination there is a tendency to think that it can transmit diseases. We can say that this is not the case, precisely because pustular psioriasis is not infectious.

What are the symptoms of psioriasis?

The symptoms of psioriasis are most often manifested by clinical manifestations on the skin.

The most common clinical form of psioriasis is called plaque psioriasis or psioriasis vulgaris, which has different subtypes.

The first is plaque psioriasis, which is the classic form that we all know, but there is also acute guttate psioriasis, due to bacterial infections, as well as what can be defined as palmoplantar psioriasis, precisely to indicate the sections in which it is more complex to treat.

Then we have pustulosis pustulosa, which, as the name suggests, is characterized by non-infectious, aseptic pustules adhering to the skin and, above all, itchy. Patients suffering from this type of psioriasis constantly feel the need to scratch at the pustule, but the pustule is unlikely to break.

Symptoms do not stop with the clinical manifestations on the skin, but also occur outside the skin.

Various comorbidities are possible, and these arise when cytokines, the agents responsible for psioriasis, are in the bloodstream. These cytokines first cause the patches on the skin and only then act on other sites, such as the joints. In general, the patient with psoriasis very frequently has previous pathologies (overweight, metabolic syndrome). Here are some examples:

• cardiovascular pathologies
• type II diabetes
• metabolic syndrome
• non-alcoholic fatty liver
• depression, which has a major psychological impact.

The epidemiology of psioriasis: how widespread is it and how?
When we want to find out how widespread a disease is, we refer to epidemiology. As far as psioriasis is concerned, it is quite widespread, so much so that it is among the most common skin diseases.

Psioriasis is most common in children, but it is also common in adults, who fight the clinical manifestations of the disease with effective therapies.

The most common type of psioriasis, as mentioned above, is certainly plaque psioriasis, which can also be defined as chronic and stable.