Top ten psoriasis research priorities

The 'Psoriasis Top 10' research priorities have been announced.

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The psoriasis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) will ensure that psoriasis research is carried out in areas that are really important to people who have psoriasis, their families and friends, and the healthcare professionals who treat them.  

Please use the links in the menu to find out more about how a Priority Setting Partnership works, and who is involved.

The final 'Psoriasis Top 10' research priorities were announced on Friday 2nd November 2018 (see below). The workshop to discuss and rank the priorities in order to produce the final 'Top Ten' list took place in September 2018.

In summer 2019, an article was published in the prestigious British Journal of Dermatology (BJD), setting out how the psoriasis PSP was undertaken, and how the final 'Top Ten' list was decided upon. You can read the full article here. 

The Top Ten Psoriasis Research Priorities are:

1. Do lifestyle factors such as diet, dietary supplements, alcohol, smoking, weight loss and exercise play a part in treating psoriasis?

2. Does treating psoriasis early (or proactively) reduce the severity of the disease, make it more likely to go into remission, or stop other health conditions developing?

3. What factors predict how well psoriasis will respond to a treatment?

4. What is the best way to treat the symptoms of psoriasis: itching, burning, redness, scaling and flaking?

5. How well do psychological and educational interventions work for adults and children with psoriasis?

6. Does treating psoriasis help improve other health conditions, such as psoriatic arthritis, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and stress?

7. Why do psoriasis treatments stop working well against psoriasis and when they stop working well, what’s the best way to regain control of the disease?

8. To what extent is psoriasis caused by a person’s genes or other factors, such as stress, gut health, water quality, or change in the weather / temperature?

9. Is a person with psoriasis more likely to develop other health conditions (either as a consequence of psoriasis or due to the effect of treatments for psoriasis)?  If so, which ones?

10. What’s the best way to treat sudden flare ups of psoriasis?