“Don’t be shy. You don’t need to apologize for asking your doctor lots of questions,” board-certified dermatologist Dr. Adel Haque told MyPsoriasisTeam. His instructions are clear: Speak up if you’re unsatisfied with your psoriasis treatment or you wonder what other treatment options there may be to help improve your condition and quality of life.

Below are three tips Dr. Haque shared for discussing psoriasis treatments with your dermatologist.

“You can do a lot of research and a lot of background reading,” Dr. Haque encouraged. “I love it when my patients come to me and say, ‘Hey, I read that this might be a good treatment option for me. What do you think about that?’”

Sometimes reading about psoriasis treatment options can be overwhelming — it’s OK if that’s how you feel. Tell your dermatologist if you need help navigating the treatment information you can find online. It’s their job to help you understand the options available and make sure you understand the most important information about the medications you might consider.

Dr. Haque also recommended that people consider in advance what types of psoriasis treatments they’re open to using, whether those options include a topical cream or ointment, an oral medication, or a biologic.¹ When considering which type of treatments you’d prefer, Dr. Haque emphasized, it’s important to have realistic expectations.

For example, if you would rather use a topical medication instead of an injected biologic, it’s important to understand that a topical medication may not perform the same as a biologic. Although it’s possible to see skin clearance with both topical treatments and biologics, topical drugs don’t address systemic inflammation the way biologics do.¹ Unlike topical treatments, biologics work internally with your immune system to target the inflammation inside your body.² Many people may also have the experience that treatments like topical therapies or phototherapy are difficult to stick with.

Dr. Haque encouraged approaching a dermatologist with an “open mind” while also having “clear expectations of what you want” from a new treatment. This could mean thinking about which psoriasis symptoms are your top priority to treat and being open to discussing different treatment plans with your doctor. Knowing what is important to you can help you and your dermatologist have a better discussion. There are many options available to treat psoriasis, and sharing your goals and preferences can help you and your dermatologist determine what treatment is best for you. Make sure you set treatment goals and discuss your progress toward them at each dermatology appointment.

Dr. Haque acknowledged that people with psoriasis may have faced challenges over the years with their treatments. Experiencing ineffective or disappointing treatment can lead to frustration when exploring options. “As providers, we just want to do the best we can for our patients,” he said. Many highly effective options are available to treat psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis,¹ but “we don’t have any miracle cures,” Dr. Haque said. When working with your doctor to pick a treatment plan, you should be comfortable with the ongoing use of a treatment to manage your chronic condition.

Dr. Haque explained the multiple factors he considers when determining the best treatment options for someone with psoriasis. One factor involves the observable severity of their skin condition, such as how much of their body is covered in lesions, or other signs of inflammation on the skin, like itching and discoloration such as redness. However, that isn’t the end of the conversation.

“A lot of times I’ll see patients with just mild to moderate disease and I’ll think, ‘This patient could probably do OK on topicals,’ but then the patient will say, ‘I never wear short sleeves,’” Dr. Haque shared. “Well, you do have mild to moderate disease, but that sounds like a moderate to severe effect on your lifestyle. Maybe we do have to get this under better control than a topical [treatment] might offer.

“If you have been working hard to treat your psoriasis with multiple creams and feel like nothing is working for you, and that psoriasis happens to only cover 2 percent of your body but that 2 percent is affecting a hundred percent of your life, that’s moderate to severe psoriasis, in my opinion,” Dr. Haque said. “And we can look for additional treatment options, like a systemic therapy.”

It’s also very important to share where you have psoriasis, even if it’s on your most sensitive areas. Having psoriasis on your scalp, face, nails, and genitals may affect your life in a more severe way.³ Sharing this with your dermatologist is critical to them assessing the full impact of your disease and may be a reason to start systemic therapy. Remember that psoriasis is not just a skin disease. When it’s affecting your life in a negative way, it may be time to target the disease from the inside out.

ABBV-US-01460-MC v1.0 January 2024