THURSDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Overweight patients with psoriasis have reduced disease severity and improved skin-related quality of life after weight loss, according to a study published online May 29 in JAMA Dermatology.
Peter Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., from the Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte in Hellerup, Denmark, and colleagues randomly assigned 60 overweight patients with psoriasis to continue eating ordinary healthy foods or to receive a low-energy diet (800 to 1,000 kcal per day) for eight weeks followed by normal food intake (reaching 1,200 kcal per day) for eight weeks.
At 16 weeks, the researchers observed significantly greater weight loss in the group who received the low-energy diet (mean loss, 15.4 kg greater). This group also had greater improvement in psoriasis severity (based on the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index), although this did not quite reach statistical significance, and a significantly greater improvement in skin-related quality of life (based on the Dermatology Life Quality Index).
"Our results emphasize the importance of weight loss as part of a multimodal treatment approach to effectively treat both the skin condition and its associated comorbid conditions in overweight patients with psoriasis," Jensen and colleagues conclude.
The study was funded in part by the Cambridge Manufacturing Company, which develops, manufactures, and markets the Cambridge Weight Plan (used in the study).
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