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Updated: Jun 24, 2026
The Goeckerman Regimen for the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Psoriasis
Published on: July 11, 2013
Evaluation of the efficacy of acitretin therapy for nail psoriasis
Antonella Tosti1, Carlos Ricotti, Paolo Romanelli
1Department of Dermatology, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 1, 40138 Bologna, Italy. antonella.tosti@unibo.it
Objective:
To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of acitretin in patients with isolated nail psoriasis.
Design:
Open study involving 36 patients with moderate to severe nail psoriasis treated with acitretin.
Setting:
University-based outpatient dermatology clinic specializing in nail diseases.
Patients:
A total of 27 men and 9 women (mean age, 41 years) with nail psoriasis.
Intervention:
Therapy consisted of acitretin, 0.2 to 0.3 mg/kg/d, for 6 months.
Main Outcome Measures:
Clinical evaluation, and Nail Psoriasis Severity Index (NAPSI) and modified NAPSI scores before therapy, every 2 months during therapy, and 6 months after treatment.
Results:
The mean percentage of reduction of the NAPSI score after treatment was 41%; the mean percentage of reduction of the modified NAPSI score of the target nail was 50%. Clinical evaluation at 6 months showed complete or almost complete clearing of the nail lesions in 9 patients (25%), moderate improvement in 9 (25%), mild improvement in 12 (33%), and no improvement in 6 (11%).
Conclusion:
Results from low-dose acitretin therapy show NAPSI score reductions comparable with those studies evaluating biologic drugs for nail psoriasis and suggest that low-dose systemic acitretin should be considered in the treatment of nail psoriasis.
