Featuring Dr. Kam Shojania, MD, FRCPC

Management of Psoriatic Arthritis Duration: 1 minute, 42 seconds

So about one in ten of us have psoriasis, so it's pretty common, and about one in ten of those people will get the arthritis. So once you have the diagnosis, what we do to manage it is treat both the skin and the joints.

We can sometimes do them separately or together. Dermatologists typically treat the skin with topical, or lotions and creams, and rheumatologists and other physicians will treat the joints with anti-inflammatories and other treatments very similar to rheumatoid arthritis treatment.

So managing psoriatic arthritis is interesting because there is both the psoriasis and arthritis but also psoriatic arthritis is part of this general metabolic syndrome. People with psoriatic arthritis have an increased frequency of myocardial infarction, heart attacks, strokes, and often have high cholesterol, hypertension and other things that go along with the metabolic syndrome.

So managing the psoriatic arthritis is more than just managing those two conditions, it's managing general lifestyle such as smoking cessation, weight loss, approprate diet, and keeping as healthy as possible in general.

So it's important if you think you have psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis to get the diagnosis because finding it early makes it much easier to treat. So if you have questions about psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis or you think you have it, please contact your healthcare professional.

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Presenter: Dr. Kam Shojania, Rheumatologist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Rheumatologist