Mindfulness and meditation may help offer benefits as adjunct therapy for patients with moderate to-severe plaque psoriasis, according to a review published in Dermatology and Therapy. Erin
Bartholomew and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to assess the role of mindfulness and meditation in treating psoriasis symptoms, severity, and QOL. Based on six identified randomized controlled trials with a pooled 356 patients with psoriasis, five trials demonstrated improvement in the self-administered Psoriasis Area and Severity Index after 8 or 12 weeks of guided meditation. Mental health benefits were seen among patients with psoriasis following guided meditation in one randomized controlled trial and one non-randomized trial. “Overall, these results suggest the possibility that meditation can be used as a tool to improve both psoriasis severity and patient QOL in the short term,” the study authors wrote.
