ATTENUATED CYCLOSPORINE AS A MAINTENANCE TREATMENT FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH MODERATE TO SEVERE CHRONIC PLAQUE PSORIASIS

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, systemic illness that mostly affects the skin and joints and lowers the 
quality of life for those who have it. Many psoriasis patients experience significant flare-ups of their condition often, 
necessitating ongoing systemic treatment. Limited information is available in the literature about the assessment of 
systemic maintenance therapy's ability to prevent recurrent flare-ups in psoriasis patients. 
Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of weekend cyclosporine treatment (WCT) 
as a maintenance therapy for individuals with moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis in order to avoid recurrent 
flare-ups of the condition.  
Methods: In this study, 44 psoriasis patients who had experienced at least three frequent flare-ups of their condition 
within the previous 12 months and were receiving weekend cyclosporine treatment (Group I) were compared to 44 age 
and gender-matched controls who were not receiving weekend cyclosporine treatment or any other systemic maintenance 
therapy (Group II). 
Results: Group I showed an aggravation of the illness in 18.2% (n=8) of the individuals, which was substantially less 
than Group II, where 95.5% (n=42) of the subjects showed an exacerbation (p-value = 0.00). Subjects in Group I 
experienced considerably fewer overall exacerbations than those in Group II (p=0.00). 9.1% (n=8) of research participants 
had adverse effects such as myalgia (n=2), minor gingival hyperplasia (n=2), and acneiform eruptions (n=4), whereas 
Group II experienced six occurrences, including headache in two and acneiform eruptions in four.  
Conclusion: In addition to being an efficient and secure form of maintenance therapy for psoriasis patients, the current 
study finds that weakened cyclosporin treatment for psoriasis reduces the frequency of disease exacerbations.