Doctors and Health Care

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What Do Hospital Cyber Attackers Want to Know About You?

Cyber attackers who target hospital databases mostly go after patient contact and financial information, not medical...
A Kid-Friendly Emergency Room Saves Lives

Critically ill kids are far more likely to survive if they’re treated at hospital emergency rooms...
One Man’s False Teeth Got ‘Lost’ in His Throat After Surgery

Scheduled for surgery? Don’t forget to take your dentures out. According to a new report, one...

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- Posted June 28, 2019
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Are You Living with Psoriasis?

A growing knowledge of the skin disease called psoriasis is leading to greater treatment choices, including personalized therapies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports.

Psoriasis is an immune system disorder that causes overproduction of skin cells, resulting in scaling, pain, swelling, redness and heat. The condition affects about 7.5 million Americans.

“As we better understand the disease, researchers know more about what specific factors to target in order to develop effective treatments,” FDA dermatologist Dr. Melinda McCord said in an agency news release.

There is no cure for psoriasis, so the main goals of treatments are to stop skin cell overproduction and reduce inflammation. Current therapies include medicines applied to the skin (topical), light treatment (phototherapy), or drugs taken by mouth or given by injection.

Doctors used to take a step-by-step approach, starting patients with mild to moderate psoriasis on topical therapy. If that was ineffective, doctors moved on to phototherapy or drug treatment.