Psoriasis patients report benefits with new drug

About 5 million Americans suffer from psoriasis, an unsightly, uncomfortable skin condition in which skin cells grow too fast, forming thick, scaly lesions.

Topical preparations can relieve only symptoms, and most drugs taken internally have significant and cumulative side effects, including liver damage. Now researchers are taking a new approach: using injectable drugs to keep the immune system from going into overdrive.

Among these drugs is efalizumab, which was recently tested in a 30-center study led by researchers at the Loyola University Health System in Illinois.

In the trial, 556 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis received weekly injections of the drug or a placebo for three months. Those who got the drug reported reductions in the scaly patches, plus reduced severity and frequency of pain, itching, bleeding, burning and scaling.

The study was published in the Dec. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

-- Jane E. Allen