VIDEO: What it means to be diagnosed with psoriasis

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I think when a clinician first sees a patient with psoriasis, there are several things I think is important to convey to the patient. Number one, it's important to tell the patient that it is not contagious. And then number two is that, oftentimes patients will think that what they eat, the diet, can play a large role in terms of the onset or exacerbation of psoriasis.

However, the research haven't really bear that out, at least not in a rigorous way. So what I tell my patients regarding diet is that they should generally follow a healthy diet, but overall, expecting diet alone to help manage their psoriasis can be something that a lot of patients will find very, very difficult. I think one of the most things to convey to patients is regarding what's considered comorbidities, or concurrent conditions that can occur in addition to psoriasis, that's associate with psoriasis. For example, a patient with psoriasis, a third of them can develop something called psoriatic arthritis, which is this inflammatory arthritis that can be progressive and that can be debilitating.

So it's important to tell patients that if they start to experience stiffness in their joints or joint symptoms, to make sure that they get evaluated. And I think lastly, it's very important to discuss with our patients the treatment options. One of the things I oftentimes will mention is that we have a lot of treatment options now for psoriasis and it's really important that we work together so that we choose something that's quite personalized for you, your location of psoriasis or severity of psoriasis and that this is a journey, because it's a chronic disease, but that I'm here for you throughout this journey.