The duration of clinical remission of photochemotherapy and narrow-band UV-B phototherapy in the treatment of psoriasis: A retrospective study

PUVA and UVB-NB phototherapy have an established role in the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Even though psoriasis patients often require continuous treatments, inadequate attention is devoted to the duration of remission after the treatment. The purpose of this retrospective study is to assess which phototherapeutic regimen induces a longer remission. Twenty patients with psoriasis were included: 10 patients received PUVA and 10 patients received UVB-NB. We consider as a "cycle" the therapeutic period needed to reach clinical remission. The comparison between the average number of days in remission revealed that PUVA induces a longer remission period than UVB-NB: PUVA 386 days (ds +/- 321), UVB-NB 298 days (ds +/- 257). Although the difference of the duration of remission is not statistically significant, a trend is seen and patients treated with PUVA remain clear for a period about 88 days longer than that of patients treated with UVB-NB. The differences in the duration of remission of psoriasis therapies must be considered in planning a patient's course of treatment.