Quality of Life
Psoriasis may profoundly affect all aspects of patients' social and personal lives as well as their work. The impact of psoriasis on a patient is not directly related to the overall area affected or to other parameters of disease activity such as redness or thickness of plaques, but more to the site distribution and the attitudes of the patient. It is important to be able to measure handicap caused by psoriasis for use in clinical trials, for audit, to aid clinical decision taking. Questionnaire methods of assessment that can be used to measure quality of life include the DLQI (Dermatology Life Quality Index or Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index)
These have been validated and used to assess the effect of systemic therapy and of inpatient therapy. They have been used to compare the impact of psoriasis with that of other skin diseases. A DLQI of 10 or more correlates well with severe disease requiring admission, phototherapy or second line therapy and an improvement in DLQI of 5 or more points is considered a worthwhile criterion for response.
This information forms part of the current BAD guidance document for the general management of psoriasis. Other sections in the document comprise:
