Long-term efficacy of psoriasis vulgaris treatments: analysis of treatment with topical corticosteroid and/or vitamin D3 analog, oral cyclosporin, etretinate and phototherapy over a 35-year period, 1975-2010.

Various therapies have been tried for psoriasis. In Japan, biologics began to be used for psoriasis treatment in January 2010. Their clinical efficacy is well known, but biologics cannot be used in all psoriasis patients for reasons such as side-effects and cost. It is necessary to evaluate the effect of long-term psoriasis treatment, but there have been no reports evaluating long-term treatment. Therefore, the outcomes of patients who had been treated at the Tokai University Hospital for more than 5 years, before biological agents were released, were examined. Three categories, classified by initial severity, changes in severity by method of treatment and background characteristics, were investigated. In conclusion, cases of long-term treatment with a combination of topical corticosteroid and topical vitamin D3 analog or oral cyclosporin were found to be effective therapies. Patients with a history of diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular disease of psoriasis were likely to be treatment resistant.