RESUMO
Psoriasis is a common, genetically determined, inflammatory and proliferative disease of the skin. In contrast to the general belief that psoriasis is incurable, most of the patients are treated with different modalities showing variable responses. Moreover, considerable percentage of patients can be benefited by proper selection of treatment modality. we compared the efficacy of two drugs, methotrexate and hydroxyurea, the use of which is supported by immunopathogenic basis of origin of psoriasis in the treatment of psoriasis. A total of 40 patients of psoriasis having more than 20% body surface involvement during a one year period were alternatively allocated to group A and group B and treated with methotrexate 15mg per week and hydroxyurea 500mg twice a day respectively for three months. The patients were evaluated for response and side effects at 1, 2 and 3 months of treatment. The severity of disease was evaluated by PASI scoring using the method of Ramsay and Lawrence and the results of two groups were statistically compared. In group A, on methotrexate, the percentage reduction at one month was 47.21 +/- 8.70, which increased to 66.20 +/- 10.77 and 81.90 +/- 12.08 on two and three months of treatment respectively while in patients on hydroxyurea, the percentage reductions in score were found to be 40.47 +/- 15.32, 55.74 +/- 15.27 and 73.68 +/- 18.59 at one, two and three months. Both methotrexate and hydroxyurea were equally effective in the treatment of psoriasis. Also methotrexate lead to a faster clearance of disease in early course of treatment though both drugs had similar efficacy at the end of three months