A reappraisal of the concept of suppressive versus remittive psoriasis treatments

Abstract

Among the ways to characterize the many treatments for psoriasis is to distinguish suppressive from remittive therapies. Remittive therapies are thought to be treatments that result in a prolonged period of disease remission even after stopping the drug, while suppressive treatments are thought to work only during the treatment period. However, apparent differences in remittive and suppressive properties may be due to the remitting and relapsing nature of psoriasis and the order in which treatments are used in patients. Few clinical trials have compared the suppressive versus remittive properties of different treatments. Given the adverse events and expense associated with many psoriasis therapies, a major implication is that psoriasis patients who have cleared on therapy should probably be tested at intervals to see if they can be tapered off their medication without loss of control of their disease.