Rational for statin use in psoriatic patients

Psoriasis represents a common skin diseasewhichis clinically manifested by chronic cutaneous lesions. It hasbeen observed that psoriasis is associated with an increasedrisk of cardiovascular diseases, which is contributed to theinappropriate lipid metabolism. Statins are commonly used inclinical practice to lower cholesterol concentration and,accordingly, decrease the individual risk of developing acardiovascular episode. There have been reports that statinadministration could also result in better management ofpsoriasis. The observed beneficial effects are contributed tothe effects on lipid metabolism, including that in skin, as wellas anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of statins. Simvastatin and atorvastatin were found to improvethe clinical outcome in patients with psoriatic skin lesions.Clinically, the effectiveness of this novel treatment was confirmedby the significant reduction in PASI score. To dateseveral cases have been reported in which atorvastatin orpravastatin worsened psoriasis. Based on these results, itseems that statins represent a promising class of medicationswhich could be extensively used in psoriasis.