Controlling for other factors, researchers have found that at least six years of high blood pressure and use of beta-blockers are associated with an increased risk of psoriasis in women.
Dr. Abrar Qureshi
Chair, Department of Dermatology

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Women who have suffered for at least six years with high blood pressure and those who take beta-blocker medications to treat the condition also face an increased risk of the auto-immune skin disease psoriasis, according to a new study in JAMA Dermatology.

To make the findings, researchers including lead author Dr. Shaowei Wu and senior author Dr. Abrar Qureshi, chair of the dermatology department of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, analyzed records of 77,728 women in the Nurses Health Study dataset to compare psoriasis risk among women with and without long-term hypertension and in various methods of treatment.

“After adjusting for a number of potential confounders, we found that a prior history of hypertension was associated with an increased risk of psoriasis among women with a hypertension duration of six years or more,” wrote Qureshi and Wu, who also work in the Lifespan Health system. “Among the individual antihypertensive drugs, only beta-blockers were associated with an increased risk of psoriasis after regular use for six years or more.”