Hello,

This is probably a stupid question, but what is meant by "stable" plaque psoriasis? It is all over (no pun intended) the NPF literature, and is frequently mentioned in my medication leaflets, as well as in medical studies and reports.

My psoriasis starts with a few lesions size of a pin-head, and then each grows indefinetly. Some grow faster than others (on my leg, a pin-head sized lesion is now about 5 inches in diameter after 5 months, whereas on my arm, another has only grown to an inch across). However, they ALWAYS continue to grow and new pin-head size lesions appear until the doctor finally allows me to have PUVA or something systemic.

During this "growth period"/pre-treatment period, my doctor puts me on tar, then Dovonex, then some type of steriods, then moisturisers, etc etc. While they may slow it down, none of them stop the disease's progress. What I notice about the literature on each of these treatments is that they say "may be effective in treating stable plaque psoriasis".

So do I have "unstable" plaque psoriasis? And for those of you who are lucky enough to have stable plaque psoriasis, does it start out small like mine and then just stop growing at some boundary point? Man, you're
lucky!

And finally, getting to my point...why does my doctor make me take all these topicals which are targetting stable psoriasis if I don't actually have such a thing? I think he's just stalling for time.

Thanks for any help in making this clear (pun intended!)

Cheryl