A survey of psoriasis patients in Japan from 1982 to 2001.
BACKGROUND
The Japanese Society for Psoriasis Research has conducted an annual survey of psoriasis patients in Japan from 1982 to 2001.


OBJECTIVE
To perform the epidemiological study about a survey of psoriasis patients conducted in Japan for twenty years.


METHODS
A sample of 28628 cases was collected from 148 dermatology centers throughout Japan. The reports from each center were analyzed.


RESULTS
Males (65.8%) were predominant over females (34.2%) in number. The vast majority of cases (86.0%) had plaque-form of psoriasis vulgaris, and 812 cases (2.8%) showed guttate psoriasis. Psoriatic erythroderma (0.8%), generalized pustular psoriasis (0.9%), and localized pustular psoriasis (0.5%) were rare. Three hundred of the patients (1.0%) manifested psoriatic arthritis. Local corticosteroids (67.8%) were the most used modalities, whereas local vitamin D(3) preparations (2.4%) were rarely used. For photo-therapeutic treatments, topical (12.1%) and systemic (7.5%) PUVA were predominant over UVB therapy (0.5%). In systemic treatments, drugs from the herbal medicine was the first (14.2%), followed by etretinate (7.6%), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (4.4%), oral corticosteroids (4.1%), methotrexate (2.8%), cyclosporine (1.6%), and anti-cancer drugs (1.4%).


CONCLUSIONS
This survey was the first epidemiological study throughout Japan.
Kawada
Akira
A
Department of Dermatology, Kinki University School of Medicine, Ohno-Higashi 377-2, Osaka-Sayama city, Osaka 589-8511, Japan. kawada@med.kindai.ac.jp
Tezuka
Tadashi
T
Nakamizo
Yoshio
Y
Kimura
Hideto
H
Nakagawa
Hidemi
H
Ohkido
Muneo
M
Ozawa
Akira
A
Ohkawara
Akira
A
Kobayashi
Hitoshi
H
Harada
Shotaro
S
Igarashi
Atsuyuki
A
D000287:Administration, Topical; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D017668:Age of Onset; D002762:Cholecalciferol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D017678:Sex Distribution
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D002762:Cholecalciferol