Psychological interventions for psorasis and PsA

[Psorasis warrier]

People with long term conditions often feel very isolated, having to live with psoriasis which impacts self esteem and then arthritis which impacts your ability to do every day tasks.

How can the needs of patients with these be provided long term support to 'cope'? Especially when there is a connection between mind and skin. Where patients have severe psoriasis, expensive biological treatments are given but mental health is given a limit, behavioural therapy is capped at 'x' sessions. Surely where there is a need the patient can exceed the session numbers and that will provide a better holistic approach and enable the individual to maximise the impact of mental health on physical health.

[professor andrew r thompson]

I agree that there needs to be better access to psychological support and if the therapy provided does not work then other types of 'talking cure' or guided self-help might be tried before or in conjunction with medication. Your GP should be able to advise you as to what forms of psychological support are available and often you can also self-refer via calling your local IAPT service (details can easily be found online). Some areas are also developing specialist skin wellbeing services. For example in Sheffield people can self refer into group or for one to one support (although this as you say is time limited). There are also self-help resources available on websites such as www.skinsupport.org.uk and some organisations offer peer support or the opportunity to take advice from others living with psoriasis (e.g. Psoriasis Association and Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Assocciation). Living with a long term condition can be tough and we do need to get better at providing support and I hope that if you feel you need further support you can approach your GP and get this and that it can provide usable strategies for maintaining your wellbeing and assist in managing your psoriasis.

[Psorasis warrier]

Dr Thompson, many thanks for your reply. I agree sometimes different appraoches work for different patients and I welcome the approach that is being adopted in Sheffield and hope if successful it is rolled out to other areas.

My observation is that the all too often services in the NHS follow stringent guidelines and they do not necessarily reflect the needs of patients.
I hope that "it’s not what you’re treating, it’s who you are treating” is embedded into the medical training and practice of health care providers. To ensure individual patients needs are not dismissed because health professionals are simply following the pathway for a particular condition and not how the condition impacts the individual.

I really do think there is more that can be done to introduce people to support groups and so they have do not feel isolated.