What to expect from my Dermatologist appointment?

Hi Donna, UV has been known for a long time as a way to treat psoriasis. When in 1980 my husband was working on skin cancer at Yale University, his professor advised me that UV would help with my psoriasis, which had gotten out of control in the Connecticut winter. It worked then, and now I sunbake regularly, especially in winter. You see I live in Australia. Where you are, it may be easier to take vitamin D supplements. I have written about them to other people in the forum. Vitamin D needs UV to be produced. Unfortunately, people with psoriasis feel the need to cover up. My English grandmother suffered until her death at 99 because she said she could not change a lifetime of habit and expose her back, where the worst of her psoriasis was. My advice is have the UV therapy, take some vitamin D tablets on a regular basis, and look to diet. Although this last bit of advice may not be supported by your medico. It is by my GP, but she is very young, one of the new generation of doctors trained since the genome project was completed. (In my biases opinion these doctors may actually look for causes rather than treating symptoms. Or at least the brightest ones.) Good luck wendyloish

it does work. sadly I've already used nearly half of my allowed uvb treatments. I had severe psoriasis up until 4 months ago. although its flaring up again. just had my mtx dose upped to 30mg

Many thanks for your replies Wendy Loish and Winter - it's much appreciated! How many UV therapy treatments are you allowed? Is it usually a course of sessions, and you're only allowed so many UV treatments per year? Does it actually clear it completely, or just reduce the scales and redness? I think I will take some Vitamin D tablets too, to see if this helps with the situation, but I think I maybe should check with the Dermatologist to see if I'm allowed to do so at the same time as undergoing the light therapy. I'm guessing the UV therapy doesn't treat the scalp psoriasis - does it? Sorry for all the questions, but I've only had this since February 2017, and it appears to be spreading to all parts of my body now, and I'm trying to work out which treatment is best for each part of me! This is one long flare up! Many thanks again! Donna

It does depend I think. When I started, my entire torso, back, and legs were covered aswell as patches on my arms and face. I also have arthritic psoriasis in my knee and psoriasis on my tongue. I do believe they said I wouldn't notice any changes to about 10-15 sessions and the avg treatment time is 30. However, I had my own issues as I was burning alot so the dosses were lowered for me. Because of this and how severe my psoriasis is, I had about 170 treatments and still took 20mg of methotrexate and tropical ointments. I do remember my dermatologist saying you are only allowed a maximum of 500. After that, your risk to certain skin cancers can be increased. It did work for me, right now i only have psoriasis on my tongue, a small patch on my back and elbows, and my scalp. Although it is starting to flare again.