Quality of life in psoriasis improves after standardized administration of narrowband UVB phototherapy

Psoriasis is a chronic fluctuating dermatosis with demonstrable impact on patients' quality of life. Our aim was to investigate if narrowband UVB phototherapy administered to psoriatic patients in a standardized manner leads to an improvement in patients' perceived quality of life. A total of 158 patients with psoriasis were recruited from referrals to the Skin and Cancer Foundation, Australia between January 1998 and September 2002. Patients had psoriasis inadequately controlled by topical therapies alone and no contraindications to the use of phototherapy. Patients completed a pre- and post-therapy questionnaire on quality of life parameters. The differences in mean and standard deviation of quality of life parameters were measured using a paired sample t-test based on pre- and post-phototherapy questionnaires. Ninety patients were included in the study. Forty-eight patients were excluded as they had not completed post-phototherapy questionnaires. The course of narrowband UVB phototherapy was found to significantly improve quality of life in psoriasis patients (P ≤ 0.005). We conclude that narrowband UVB phototherapy improves quality of life in patients with psoriasis.