Systemic treatment with fumaric acid esters in six paediatric patients with psoriasis in a psoriasis centre.

Background: Psoriasis is one of the most common inflammatory skin disorders. There are only limited data on systemic treatment in children.

Objective: To assess the safety and clinical efficacy of the treatment of six paediatric patients with fumaric acid esters (FAE, Fumaderm) for psoriasis.

Systemic steroids in the treatment of psoriasis: what is fact, what is fiction?

Background: The use of systemic steroids in the treatment of psoriasis is not recommended by dermatological textbooks and guidelines because of the risk of disease deterioration after dose reduction or withdrawal. In contrast to these recommendations, a recent analysis using data from a German nationwide healthcare insurance revealed that systemic steroids were the most frequently prescribed drugs for psoriasis by general practitioners, internal medicine physicians and dermatologists.

Objective: As there is an obvious discrepancy between the use of systemic steroids for psoriasis and the reported adverse effects, a non-systematic literature search starting 1950 until today was performed to address beneficial and adverse effect of systemic steroids in psoriasis.

Therapy of psoriasis in childhood and adolescence - a German expert consensus.

Psoriasis of childhood shows an annual prevalence of 0.71 % and accordingly has to be regarded as a frequent chronic inflammatory skin disorder of this age. The impact on the quality of life as well as development of the afflicted children and their parents is evident.