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Bright Side: Sunnier Areas Have Lower COVID-19 Death Rates

COVID-19 might have a tough new foe: The sun. New research shows that sunnier regions of...
Pandemic Has Put Many Clinical Trials on Hold

Fewer clinical trials are being completed during the pandemic, which experts say could affect medical research...
Non-Emergency Surgeries Are Rebounding, But Backlogs Remain

The coronavirus pandemic put elective ear, nose and throat surgeries in the United States on the...

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1 in 4 Parents Won’t Vaccinate Their Kids Against COVID-19: Poll
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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.