Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that ranges in severity from patient to patient. Traditionally, percentage of body surface area affected has been used to assess the severity of psoriasis. However, this clinical assessment alone does not accurately reflect the overall effect of the disease on patients’ daily activities. Apart from the clinical severity of affected areas, psoriasis can also have a profound psychosocial impact on the patient, interfering in all aspects of life. Therefore, measuring the impact of disease must include both physiologic and quality of life (QoL) assessments.

The goal of this program is to provide dermatologists and other healthcare professionals with an understanding of the various perspectives of psoriasis severity, definitions of severity and tools to assess the physical and psychosocial impact of the disease.


Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, the participant will be able to:

Describe varying perspectives on psoriasis severity

Discuss the importance of defining disease severity

Understand the debilitating nature of psoriasis and how it effects the mental and physical well being of patients with the disease

Describe and apply common scales used for measuring disease severity and QoL in patients with psoriasis