History of psoriasis

Early references to skin diseases can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Translations from Hebrew into English meant that skin diseases became known as leprosy, even though they clearly did not describe the disease we now know as leprosy. In Ancient Greek, the word ‘lepra’ was used to describe skin that was scaly and rough which relates much more closely to the symptoms of psoriasis than those of leprosy. The word ‘psora’ was used by the Greeks to describe itchy skin conditions. This is somewhat strange in view of the fact that today some medical textbooks make claim to the fact that psoriasis is not an itchy skin condition.

In the late 18th century two dermatologists Robert Willan and Thomas Bateman described psoriasis as Willan’s lepra, a term used to describe the typically dry and scaly lesions. By the mid- 19th century an Austrian doctor Ferdinand von Hebra finally labelled the disease by what is now its modern name of psoriasis. The 20th century saw the distinctions made between all the various different types of psoriasis.