Psoriasis Outbreak: Psoriasis Triggers, Flare Ups and Outbreaks

When someone suffers a psoriasis outbreak, a specific “trigger” is usually the cause of the flare-up. While outbreaks are often unexpected, it is possible to identify what exactly causes the appearance of psoriasis lesions by keeping a log of dates, times and any events possibly associated with psoriasis flare-ups.

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Things to note as soon as you notice new psoriasis plaques or worsening of existing plaques include:

• Did the weather suddenly change from humid and wet to dry and cool?
• Did you recently injure the area of skin where a lesion appeared?
• Did you miss a dose of medication?
• Are you suffering from an infection?
• Did you recently experience an emotional or stressful situation?
• Have you drank more than your normal amount of coffee or soda in the past few days?
• Have you eaten meats high in fat?
• Did you drink alcohol prior to your psoriasis outbreak?
• What medications do you take?

By keeping track of when psoriasis plaques emerge, and any recurring events that may correlate with the flare-ups, psoriasis patients could potentially reduce the number of psoriasis eruptions they experience or at least lessen the severity of lesions.

Cause of Psoriasis Flare-ups

Psoriasis is basically an autoimmune, congenital disease commonly influencing people prior to they are 40 years of ages. Typically, health problems and/or infections, which placed tension on a currently useless body immune system, speed up the symptoms of psoriasis sores.

Consequently, the body starts generating skin cells at a worrying price, a lot to ensure that it creates an individual to experience constant itchiness, swelling, discomfort, and also flaking any place a sore shows up on the body. Regular skin cells are fully grown within One Month however the skin cells of psoriasis patients are fully grown within 6 days, causing thick build-ups of skin cells that proceed as well as pass away to develop without cessation.

Certain illnesses seem to facilitate a psoriasis outbreak such as:

• Thrush (candida albicans)
• Boils (staphylococcal skin infections)
• HIV
• Strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis)
• Upper respiratory infections that are viral

Psoriasis Outbreak Triggers

Psoriasis may be triggered by taking the following medications:

• Beta-blockers—Heart and/or hypertension medication may precipitate a psoriasis flare up.
• Anti-malarial medications—Dermatologists note that many people taking anti-malarial drugs often experience psoriasis for the first time due to adverse reactions to the drug.
• Corticosteroids—Suddenly stopping a regimen of corticosteroids or overusing them may promote a psoriasis outbreak.
• Indomethacin—Prescribed for people suffering from inflammatory issues such as arthritis, indomethacin is non-steroidal drug that has been known to worsen and cause spreading of psoriasis lesions.
• Lithium—Nearly half of all psoriasis patients taking lithium for bipolar disorder or psychosis suffer flare-ups or exacerbation of existing plaques.

Stress and Psoriasis

Because psoriasis is a multifactorial disorder, and stress by itself is usually not enough to cause psoriasis flare-ups. However, experiencing a stressful event, coupled with environmental, immunological, and genetic factors, will aggravate skin cell production and provoke the generation of psoriasis plaques.

Some patients are vulnerable to mildly stressful occurrences, such as an argument with a co-worker or being late for work due to a traffic delay and will experience an outbreak because of the incident. Others are able to tolerate small stresses without suffering psoriasis lesions, only affected by psoriasis when something traumatic happens, like a divorce, vehicle accident or death in the family.

Further intensifying a stressful event is the physical pain and embarrassment caused by having visible, unsightly lesions covering the body. This may heighten anxiety and lead to depression, an illness that diminishes the ability of the immune system to fight off infections. All of these factors combined can result in chronic and debilitating psoriasis.

When illness can be ruled out as the cause of a psoriasis outbreak and stress is suspected of being the main culprit, patients can engage in several activities that may alleviate anxiety.

In addition to traditional treatments involving psoriasis medication and antidepressants, patients may find relief in non-traditional methods such as massage therapy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, reflexology, and psychotherapy. In addition, keeping psoriasis lesions covered in moisturizers and anti-itch creams can reduce the urge to scratch or pick at the lesions and help lessen the severity of the outbreak.

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National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

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