Background: There are many topical therapies for the treatment of plaque psoriasis
like steroid, dithranol, tar and vitamin D analogues, but none of them is ideal. Most recently, in a pilot study, podophyllin 5% ointment on every
other day regimen was as effective as clobetasole 0.05% ointment twice daily. Objective: To reassess the efficacy of a
higher concentration of podophyllin (10%) in the treatment of mild psoriasis in
comparison with clobetasole using a different regimen. Patients andMethods: This is
therapeutic, comparative, placebo-controlled study conducted at the Department
of Dermatology-Baghdad Teaching Hospital, during the period of January 2011 - October 2012. Eighty-seven patients with mild plaque-type psoriasis
were divided into three groups: Group
A (30) patients were treated with podophyllin 10% ointment; Group B (30) patients were treated with clobetasol propionate 0.05% ointment and Group C (27) patients were treated with Vaseline as a placebo control
group. All patients were treated on every other day. The efficacy was evaluated
every 2 weeks for 8 weeks using PASI score
and the local and systemic side effects were recorded. The relapse was recorded
after cessation of therapy in those patients who achieved good response during
another 8 weeks follow-up period. Results: The patients were 60 (68.9%) males and 27 (31.1%) females (male: female ratio, 2.2:1). Their ages ranged from 18 - 62 (36.4 ± 10) years. Their
disease duration ranged from 0.1 - 40 (7.8 ± 8.5) years. Their baseline PASI score ranged from 1.6 - 9.6
(4.4 ± 5.85). At the end of 8th week of therapy, Group A patients had
achieved much higher reduction in PASI score (77.4 ± 14.1) than Group B patients (60.4 ± 27.8), P value = 0.004, and both of them were with
statistically and significantly higher PASI reduction than patients in Group C (28 ± 23.4), P value = <0.001. The total relapse rate during 8 weeks
follow-up was
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