Question:
A friend of mine had some small patches of Psoriasis in his head. He said
he was highly stressed out and worried so much he had trouble sleeping at
night. His doctor prescribed him some kind of anxiety medication (not sure
which) and his stress and P is completely gone and never came back.
Anyone think anxiety medication can "clear" the symptoms of P by reducing
one's stress level?
Answer:
Medication for anxiety ( and depression) can help the general body systems,
and help a patient function more normally.
Sometimes this results in an improvement in p. Sometimes not.
About 2/3rds of psoriatics, by some reports, say that their psoriasis gets
worse with increased stress. With those kinds of numbers, it seems likely that
at least some will have psoriasis triggered by nothing more than stress. In
those cases, removing the stress, the trigger, could very well lead to a
clearing of the symptoms.
This is, of course, not necessarily true for everyone whose psoriasis worsens
with stress. If you (general 'you') know that yours does, then avoiding stress
(or medicating it away) will probably lead to, at the very least, fewer
flare-ups. But there aren't any guarantees, and so the choice to attempt an
anti-anxiety drug for psoriasis control (or elimination) will be a personal one
based on balancing the risks inherent in any medication with the possible
benefits. Well, not just a personal decision, since there's likely to be a
doctor involved...
And don't forget there are plenty of non-medical stress reduction techniques
out there to be tried, as well. Meditation, etc.. Heck, if you live a
stressful life, finding a way to, well, *force* yourself to relax for a little
while on a regular basis could very well improve your overall "quality of
life," even if it doesn't make the tiniest change in your plaques.
But this is a case where your mileage will most assuredly vary. "Stress" is
highly personal.
