Psoriasis and Its Comorbidities

Psoriasis is a multi-systemic chronic inflammatory skin disease targeting 2% to 3% of the general population. It is a prototype of immune dysregulation mediated by TH1 proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IFN-Y, IL-6, and IL-12, to name a few. Psoriasis, traditionally viewed as an inflammatory skin disorder of unknown origin, is increasingly recognized as an inflammatory skin disease with far reaching systemic effects. There is growing and emerging evidence that psoriasis patients have a higher prevalence of associated comorbid disease with cardiometabolic dysfunction and psoriatic arthritis being at the forefront. It appears that psoriatic skin disease severity portends a serious risk for development of these comorbidities. As such, patients with moderate to severe psoriatic skin disease are found to have a higher association with these extracutaneous disease manifestations.