Psoriasis nearly doubles diabetes risk

Washington, October 16 (ANI): Researchers have found a strong correlation between psoriasis and diabetes following an analysis of 27 studies, which link the scaly skin rash and the blood sugar disorder.

UC Davis researchers led the review.

"Our investigation found a clear association between psoriasis and diabetes," said April Armstrong, assistant professor of dermatology at UC Davis and principal investigator of the study.

"Patients with psoriasis and their physicians need to be aware of the increased risk of developing diabetes so that patients can be screened regularly and benefit from early treatment," he noted.

Psoriasis is a common skin problem that tends to run in families. It causes a raised red, flaky and sometimes itchy rash, often on the elbows and knees, although it can appear anywhere. It is believed to be an autoimmune disease, in which the body regards its own skin as foreign and mounts an inflammatory response.

Armstrong and her colleagues combined data from 27 observational studies of patients with psoriasis, in what is known as a meta-analysis. Five of the studies assessed the incidence of diabetes- that is, how many patients with psoriasis developed diabetes during the course of a study, which ranged from 10 to 22 years.

The other studies assessed the prevalence of diabetes - how many patients already had diabetes at the outset of a study. Altogether, the studies evaluated more than 314,000 people with psoriasis and compared them to 3.7 million individuals (controls) without the disease.

Some of the studies classified patients by disease severity. The aggregate data for these studies showed that patients with mild psoriasis are over 1.5 times more likely to have diabetes than the general population while those with severe disease are nearly twice as likely. Among studies that assessed incidence, patients with psoriasis had a 27 percent increased risk of developing diabetes compared with the general population.

All but one study analysing incidence found a link between psoriasis and diabetes. These studies included patient data from outpatient clinics, insurance claims and hospitals. Diabetes rates were similar in patients despite ethnicity or country where the study was conducted.

"The large sample size and consistent association between psoriasis and diabetes make these study findings very strong and suggest an underlying physiological link between the two diseases," said Armstrong, who directs the Dermatology Clinical Research Unit at UC Davis and the teledermatology program.

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Psoriasis nearly doubles diabetes risk