The use of complementary and alternative medicine by patients suffering from psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease, affecting 1-3% of the general population. In recent years there has been an increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by psoriasis patients.

To assess the frequency of use of CAM by psoriasis patients, depending on selected demographic and clinical factors, and to examine such aspects as sources of knowledge about CAM therapies provided by patients, reasons for their use, and subjective patient satisfaction.

The study involved 117 psoriatic patients (female = 44, male = 73), hospitalised in the Dermatology Department of the Heliodor Swiecicki Clinical Hospital in Poznan. The research tool was the author's questionnaire, consisting of single- and multiple-choice questions about the use of CAM.

57.26% of the respondents declared that they used or had used CAM for psoriasis. The analysis showed that the patients with psoriasis diagnosed in childhood statistically significantly more often used CAM compared to other patients (p = 0.017). The most frequent CAM therapies used by the responders were the use of topical agents (73.13%) and dietary supplements (71.64%). The main reason why psoriasis patients decided to use CAM was curiosity (34.33%), and the most commonly reported source of knowledge about CAM was the Internet (49.25%). The majority of responders monthly expenditure on CAM averaged less than PLN 100 (58.2%), and they were very dissatisfied with the effects of CAM (56.7%).

Psoriasis patients use complementary and alternative medicine quite frequently. Dermatologists should keep this fact in mind and should ask about the use of CAM in interviews.