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History of psoriasis starts in the dark ancient times of humankind. For the entire history of humanity millions of people - from ordinary people to celebrities, from the Egyptian Pharaoh's to the important contemporary figures - suffered and do suffer from psoriasis.
The first historical mentioning of psoriasis was found in the ancient medicine treatises. Back in high antiquity there was known a disease, which was characterized by the peeling of the skin.
In the times of Hippocrates (an ancient Greek physician, considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine) medical terms often had a group meaning. This confusion caused Hippocrates to unite leprosy and psoriasis under one name - leprosy. In the times of Hippocrates psoriasis was known under the names of lepra and psora, as well as alphos and leichen. So, under the term "psoriasis" they united the diseases which manifests by scaling, such as eczema, red flat lichen, tubercular lupus, leprosy etc.
Another famous historical figure - Greek doctor Galen (Claudius Galenus) first used the term "psoriasis" for the designation of scaly changes in the skin with a strong itch; however, the disease described by him little resembled the present description of psoriasis.
In the past centuries psoriasis was sometimes erroneously assumed as leprosy or mange, which frequently led to isolation and other negative consequences: people with psoriasis did not get any medical aid; they had to wear a special suit and to carry a rattle or a bell.
Herodotus and Plato united the group of the skin diseases, characterized by peeling, dryness and itch with the term "psora" (an ancestral historical name of psoriasis).
The first clear description of psoriasis belongs to Celsus (a 2nd century Greek philosopher) (40 A.D.).
Only in the beginning of the 19th Century did English doctor R. Willan (1757-1812) and his students clearly described the concept of psoriasis, its manifestations and complications. They differentiated psoriasis from leprosy, and fungus diseases. They also separated the common and uncommon flow of psoriasis (changes in the palms, feet, skin folds etc.). R.Willan distinguished two diseases: discoid psoriasis, which he called Lepra Graecorum (Lepra Vulgaris, Lepra Willani), and Psora Leprosa. In 1801 R. Willan gave a classical description of psoriasis.
E.Wilson (1809-1884) called psoriasis alphosis, and believed psoriasis to be an exfoliative form of eczema.
Dermatologists of the 19th Century (Polotebnov, Pospelov, Gebr, H.Koebner and others) significantly succeeded with studying psoriasis. They considered psoriasis to be a system disease ("psoriatic disease"), taking into account the connection of psoriasis with the state of the internal organs and the nervous system.
In the last 30-40 years there was acquired new data about the essence of psoriasis and there were proposed new methods for psoriasis treatment (PUVA, UVB, corticosteroids, retinoids, cytostatics, hemosorption etc.)
Only in the last decade of the 20th century there were published more than 10,000 studies on psoriasis, which makes it one of the most studied dermatitis. However, despite the timeline of more than a 2000 year history of psoriasis, none of the theories managed to explain psoriasis or its causes. Psoriasis still remains a riddle, just as it was hundreds of years ago.
At present many Research Centers research psoriasis and the development of new psoriasis treatment methods. In the USA the main scientific center of psoriasis is Stanford University, which unites 35 countries from around the world in the form of an international association on the studies of psoriasis.
Once every 5 years there is conducted the World Congress dedicated to psoriasis.
The 29th of October is World Psoriasis Day. It is an annual day dedicated to people with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis. On October 29th, International Federation of Psoriasis Association (IFPA) and its member associations perform activities all over the world to raise the awareness about psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis, and give people with psoriasis the attention and consideration that they deserve.
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