TY - JOUR T1 - The patient's journey: living with psoriasis JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 140 LP - 140 DO - 10.3399/bjgp10X483355 VL - 60 IS - 571 AU - Henry Pickering Y1 - 2010/02/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/60/571/140.abstract N2 - Diagnosis and early treatmentI first saw a doctor with scabs on my scalp in 1951 when I was 23 years old. He sent me to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge where a diagnosis of psoriasis was confirmed and I was provided with an ointment based on coal tar and a mercury salt. Over the 58 years since then I have never been clear from psoriasis lesions; unlike my cousin and an aunt (long dead) who had periods of being clear of all symptoms, interspersed with times when they were covered from head to foot.During the next few years the patches of scabs spread: first to around my navel and then slowly to the whole of my body. In the early 1960s Betnovate® cream arrived on the scene, and initially this ointment appeared to be a miracle cure, but soon more drastic action was needed.The middle yearsIn the mid-60s and early 1970s I became arthritic. The joints affected were … ER -