Guidelines of care for the management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis: Section 5. Guidelines of care for the treatment of psoriasis with phototherapy and photochemotherapy

Menter, Alan; Korman, Neil J.; Elmets, Craig A.; Feldman, Steven R.; Gelfand, Joel M.; Gordon, Kenneth B.; Gottlieb, Alice; Koo, John Y.M.; Lebwohl, Mark; Lim, Henry W.; Van Voorhees, Abby S.; Beutner, Karl R.; Bhushan, Reva

doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2009.08.026

« Previous Next »Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Volume 62, Issue 1 , Pages 114-135, January 2010

Guidelines of care for the management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis:

Section 5. Guidelines of care for the treatment of psoriasis with phototherapy and photochemotherapy

Alan Menter, MD
- Psoriasis Research Center, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
Neil J. Korman, MD, PhD
- Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis, Department of Dermatology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Craig A. Elmets, MD
- Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
Steven R. Feldman, MD, PhD
- Department of Dermatology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE
- Department of Dermatology and Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Kenneth B. Gordon, MD
- Division of Dermatology, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University, Fienberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois
Alice Gottlieb, MD, PhD
- Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
John Y.M. Koo, MD
- Department of Dermatology, University of California–San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Mark Lebwohl, MD
- Department of Dermatology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
Henry W. Lim, MD
- Department of Dermatology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan
Abby S. Van Voorhees, MD
- Department of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Karl R. Beutner, MD, PhD
- Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Palo Alto, California
- Department of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Reva Bhushan, PhD
- American Academy of Dermatology, Schaumburg, Illinois
- Reprint requests: Reva Bhushan, PhD, 930 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173.

published online 08 October 2009.

Psoriasis is a common, chronic, inflammatory, multisystem disease with predominantly skin and joint manifestations affecting approximately 2% of the population. In this fifth of 6 sections of the guidelines of care for psoriasis, we discuss the use of ultraviolet (UV) light therapy for the treatment of patients with psoriasis. Treatment should be tailored to meet individual patients' needs. We will discuss in detail the efficacy and safety as well as offer recommendations for the use of phototherapy, including narrowband and broadband UVB and photochemotherapy using psoralen plus UVA, alone and in combination with topical and systemic agents. We will also discuss the available data for the use of the excimer laser in the targeted treatment of psoriasis. Finally, where available, we will summarize the available data that compare the safety and efficacy of the different forms of UV light therapy.

Abbreviations used: AAD, American Academy of Dermatology, BB, broadband, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, MED, minimal erythema dose, NB, narrowband, PUVA, psoralen plus ultraviolet A, SCC, squamous cell carcinoma, UV, ultraviolet