Does Psoriasis Cause Hypertension?

Patients with moderate to severe psoriasis have a higher risk of manifesting uncontrolled hypertension compared to individuals who do not have psoriasis, according to a recent study.

“Adding to the currently limited understanding of the effects of comorbid disease on hypertension, our findings have important clinical implications, suggesting a need for more effective management of blood pressure in patients with psoriasis, especially those with more extensive skin involvement [greater than or equal to 3% of body surface area affected],” said Junko Takeshita, MD, PhD, and colleagues of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, the authors of the study.
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For the study, researchers monitored the impact of psoriasis on blood pressure control in 1322 patients with psoriasis and hypertension and 11,977 participants with hypertension but no psoriasis.

The study showed that the chance of uncontrolled hypertension increased with the severity of the psoriasis based on a dose-response relationship: manifestation of hypertension was more likely among participants with moderate and severe psoriasis.

Researchers also found that the participants with psoriasis were as likely to receive antihypertensive treatment as the patients without psoriasis, although, the investigators noted that severity of the psoriasis did not cause the likelihood of treatment to vary.

The complete study is published in the October issue of JAMA Dermatology.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Takeshita J, Wang S, Shin DB, et al. Effect of psoriasis severity on hypertension control. JAMA Dermatol. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2014.2094.

JAMA Network. Uncontrolled hypertension highest among patients with moderate/severe psoriasis. October 15, 2014.  http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/uncontrolled-hypertension-highest-among-patients-with-moderatesevere-psoriasis/.  Accessed October 16, 2014.