Fast facts

• Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease.
  
  
• Psoriasis affects nearly 3 percent of the world's population.
  
  
• It is not contagious. It can't be spread from one person to another.
  
  
• It affects both females and males of all ages, genders, races and ethnicities.
  
  
• There is no personality type associated with having psoriasis.
  
  
• People who get psoriasis exhibit a wide range of symptoms that vary in severity.
  
  
• Psoriasis may be physically painful. Inflamed lesions can crack open and bleed. Itching may be a constant problem. Or, psoriasis may not be painful or debilitating at all.
  
  
• There are various treatments to manage the symptoms, but no one treatment is effective for everyone.
  
  
• Although there are many treatments for psoriasis, many people still face a poor quality of life because treatments often don't work, are very expensive or may cause serious side effects.
  
  
• Psoriasis goes through cycles: sometimes better, at other times worse.
  
  
• A form of arthritis, called psoriatic arthritis, affects 30 to 50 percent of the people who have psoriasis.
  
  
• There is no cure for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
  
  
• People may have very strong emotional reactions to having psoriasis, such as embarrassment, anger or sadness.
  
  
• Sometimes people who have psoriasis are ridiculed or avoided by others because of their psoriasis. Educating people about psoriasis can help manage this aspect of the disease.
  
  
• People need support to help them cope with living with psoriasis.
  
  
• It is important that people who have psoriasis learn as much as possible about their skin disorder and understand that it is a medical problem.
  
  
• Help to get rid of myths about psoriasis by educating the public with facts about the skin disorder.