According to a new gold-standard review by researchers from the United Kingdom, steroids prove to be as beneficial and effective as vitamin D analogues when it comes to topical treatment of chronic plaque psoriasis.

As per data analysis of more than 21,000 patients during the Cochrane review, it was found out that topical steroids are as effective and well-tolerated by patients as vitamin D analogues and a combination of both these forms of treatments is the best of all.

Anne Mason, a research fellow at the centre for health economics at the University of York said that the evidence obtained from large numbers of trials clearly suggested that many forms of topical treatments in the trials tend to alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis.

From Pulsetoday.co.uk:

The Cochrane review, which analysed data on more than 21,000 patients, found topical steroids were as effective and as well tolerated as vitamin D analogues, while the two treatments in combination performed best of all.

The review of 131 randomised controlled trials lasting between one and 24 weeks found vitamin D, and all but one of the steroids included in the analysis, were significantly more effective than placebo.

Relative to vitamin D, combined treatment with vitamin D and steroid was more effective, achieving a 0.48 point improvement on a 6-point assessment scale.

The combined regimen was also more effective than steroids alone, offering an improvement of 0.55 points.

Stronger steroids including betamethasone diproprionate and the more potent clobetasol propionate were also effective, though potent steroids were also more likely to cause local adverse events and skin irritation.

There was no difference between any of the treatments and placebo in systemic adverse events.

In a nutshell, it was found out that the combination of steroids with vitamin D is more effective than either steroids or vitamin D alone.