The Long Term Ability of Heliotherapy in Improving the Quality of Life and Alleviating Disease Activity in Patients with Psoriasis

Abstract

Background and aim: Psoriasis is a chronic, multisystem inflammatory skin disease that adversely affects the quality of life. It is crucial to control disease activity and use all of the feasible therapeutic modalities to preserve the quality of life as much as possible. Heliotherapy uses natural sunlight in improving different skin conditions and represents the form of phototherapy. This study aims to assess the long-term effects of heliotherapy and compare it with outcomes of other research. Materials and methods: A total of 27 patients participated in an observational study of 2-week heliotherapy conducted at the seaside of Montenegro. Disease activity and the quality of life were measured using PASI and DLQI scores at three points of time: before starting heliotherapy, after two weeks, and three months of heliotherapy. Results: Mean PASI score before the treatment was 11,31. The results revealed a decrease in PASI values after 14 days of therapy by 30%, as well as a statistically significant decrease in PASI values ​​after three months of therapy by 29% (p <0.001). Additionally, the present study has shown a reduction in DLQI score by 41.7% (p <0.001) comparing to baseline. However, three months after the heliotherapy DLQI score was reduced by 8,33% (p=0.006) comparing to the baseline, indicating that the score was returning to the pre-therapy values. Conclusion: To conclude, two-week heliotherapy has shown satisfying, long-lasting effects in reducing PASI score and ameliorating disease severity, but it did not show beneficial effects in improving the quality of life in the long term.