Chinese Medicine for Patients With Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease with huge negative impact on the quality of life of the patients, and has an overall prevalence of 2% to 3% in the general population. Plaques psoriasis is the most common type of the disease and presents red, well demarcated, and silvery plaques mainly localized in the umbilical and lumbosacral area as well as in the elbows, knees, and scalp. Currently, pharmacological treatments such as retinoids, corticosteroids, vitamin D analogs and biologics remain the main options for most psoriasis patients. However, side effect and high cost barred many ordinary psoriasis patients. A Chinese medicine formula "Inflammatory skin disease formula (ISDF)" was prescribed by Prof. Lin for many years and observed to be effective in relieving atopic dermatitis and psoriasis patients' clinical manifestations. In this study, subjects with psoriasis will be randomized into treatment group of "ISDF" or placebo group for 12 weeks.