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“We’ve come to think the risk of heart disease in patients who have severe psoriasis as equivalent to that of patients with diabetes. These risks are real,” Van Voorhees said. “PCPs should view the psoriasis as an opportunity of understanding who may be at an increased risk for these systemic findings.”

With early intervention, PCPs can identify high-risk patients and potentially prevent some of these comorbid conditions, she said.

Psoriasis may lead to significant physical, emotional, and psychological effects. According to Van Voorhees, patients with psoriasis are frequently shunned from participating in numerous physical activities such as going to the gym or swimming.

“As you might imagine, it leads people to feel really badly about themselves,” Van Voorhees said.

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“When we do quality of life scorings, both in terms of physical and emotional findings, we find that patients with psoriasis score among the worst of all diseases.”

Physically and psychologically, patients with psoriasis scored second only to those with severe congestive heart failure and depression as their primary diagnosis, respectively, she said.

The stigma psoriasis patients endure can be excruciating, Van Voorhees said. However, even though psoriasis is not a curable disease, it is highly treatable.

“Knowing how successful treatments can be is really important for a PCP to tell his or her psoriasis patients,” said Van Voorhees.

Telling patients to “just use a cream” is no longer appropriate for a patient with significant disease burden, Van Voorhees said. Instead, she suggested that patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis be prescribed systemic therapy, either with a more traditional therapy such as methotrexate or a newer therapy such as a biologic agent or a small molecule therapy. It is especially important for PCPs to understand that these medications have the potential to clear or almost clear their patients’ skin, said Van Voorhees.