Clinical Overview of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriasis is a chronic and immune-mediated inflammatory disease affecting the skin and joints of approximately 2-3% of the world population, with a bimodal age distribution, compromising both sexes equally. Its cause is complex and not completely clarified; there would be genetic susceptibility on which triggering environmental factors would lead to a dysregulated inflammatory response, alterations in the skin barrier functions, and immune response that have a systemic impact, determining the appearance or progression of comorbidities. Psoriasis presents a large clinical polymorphism and a highly variable degree of individual involvement; its diagnosis is based almost entirely on its clinical characteristics and rarely requires histological confirmation. The choice of long-term therapy is determined by the severity of the disease, comorbidities, special locations, failure to previous treatments, and access to medical care. Lately, biological therapy has meant a great leap in effectiveness, even achieving complete disease resolution.