Advances in Psoriasis

Book excerpt: It has become increasingly clear that psoriatic disease, both of the skin and joints, can be a significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the physician and a debilitating illness for the patient. Genetic and immunologic advances have increased our understanding of the pathophysiology of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and there is a need for practically oriented evidence based references to describe the management options open to clinicians. The speed at which developments are occurring in the field also necessitates a novel approach to keeping up with these changes in practice and the need is for a reference that that be updated regularly as the subject requires. Psoriasis is an incredibly fast-moving discipline within dermatology. Guidelines, treatment options and management all change at incredible speed. There is a requirement to provide a comprehensive reference resource to provide practical, user friendly information for the dermatology profession to aid in the decision-making process. Psoriasis is a graphical subdiscipline of medicine and therefore this will have copious illustrations. As a fast moving discipline the emphasis must be on annual updates to ensure that readers are kept up to date on the important areas of development.