Stress causing Psoriasis

Psychological stress has for many years been linked with exacerbations of psoriasis. In the last 10 years, there has been a major increase in the amount of scientific evidence which helps to explain the relationship between the brain and the skin – it has been labelled the ‘brain-skin axis’. The relationship between the brain and the skin is explored in more detail in Psychological and social aspects of skin care. Researchers have looked at the physiological changes that happen when psoriasis sufferers (compared to controls) are subjected to a number of stress tests. It was shown that the patients with psoriasis who were stress-responsive had an abnormal response of the hypothalamus– pituitary–adrenal axis when exposed to stress. It was suggested that this could lead to an upregulation of the inflammatory mediators that lead to the physical manifestations of psoriasis (Richards et al., 2005).