Review
Complementary and alternative medicine for psoriasis: A qualitative review of the clinical trial literature

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Background

Patients with psoriasis often inquire about complementary and alternative medicine in an effort to do everything possible to control the disease.

Objective

We sought to review the clinical trial literature regarding complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment of psoriasis.

Methods

We conducted qualitative systematic review of randomized, clinical trials.

Results

Although many randomized controlled trials were found, both the results and the quality of the studies varied.

Limitations

The main limitations were the relatively low quality of studies (as assessed by Jadad scores), lack of inclusion of unpublished studies, and the fact that only one author determined inclusion of studies and assignment of Jadad scores.

Conclusion

There is a large body of literature in regard to complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment of psoriasis. More work is necessary before these modalities should be recommended to our patients.

Section snippets

Methods

We searched for studies in the English language for which clinical response of psoriasis was the primary end point. Only randomized, controlled trials were included in the analysis. Blinding was not necessarily an inclusion criterion. Studies were excluded if they were not described as “randomized,” they were not open label, they were not in the English language, or the primary end point was not a clinical assessment (ie, a basic science end point). PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and AMED (Allied and

Vitamin D

There have been case reports showing efficacy of vitamin-D metabolites for psoriasis. Also, patients receiving vitamin D for osteoporosis have showed improvements in their psoriasis. Siddiqui and Al-Kwawajah10 conducted a placebo-controlled double-blind trial using 1 μg/d vitamin D3 (1-α-hydroxyl) compared with placebo in patients with moderate to severe disease (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index [PASI] score > 15). Fifty patients were enrolled and 41 completed the 12-week trial. At week 12 an

Discussion

We conducted a qualitative systematic review of various CAM modalities for psoriasis by searching the medical literature for randomized controlled trials that met our inclusion criteria. Those dermatologists who treat moderate and severe psoriasis have most certainly had patients asking about therapeutic alternatives to conventional Western medicine. Probably, in most situations, our patients are not looking to replace their existing therapy but are trying to do everything possible to get their

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    Funding sources: None.

    Conflicts of interest: None declared.

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