Psoriasis Risk Tied to High Blood Pressure in Women, Study

Women with long-term high blood pressure (hypertension) appear to be at an increased risk for the skin condition psoriasis, and long-term use of beta (β)-blocker medication to treat hypertension may also increase the risk of psoriasis.

To make the findings, researchers including lead author Dr. Shaowei Wu and senior author Dr. Abrar Qureshi, chair of the dermatology department of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, analyzed records of 77,728 women in the Nurses Health Study dataset to compare psoriasis risk among women with and without long-term hypertension and in various methods of treatment.

“After adjusting for a number of potential confounders, we found that a prior history of hypertension was associated with an increased risk of psoriasis among women with a hypertension duration of six years or more,” wrote Qureshi and Wu, who also work in the Lifespan Health system. “Among the individual antihypertensive drugs, only beta-blockers were associated with an increased risk of psoriasis after regular use for six years or more.”

The new study is published online July 2 in JAMA Dermatology.

Agencies/Canadajournal