Abstract
Objective Plaque psoriasis constitutes around 90% prevalent in the world. Methotrexate has been widely used to treat psoriasis and associated arthritis. The objective of the study is to determine the efficacy of methotrexate in the treatment of plaque psoriasis. Methods The interventional descriptive single-arm pre and post-study was conducted in the department of dermatology FFH Rawalpindi from Aug 2018 to Jan 2021. 142 patients suffering from plaque type psoriasis with PASI score of >8 were included. Oral methotrexate in dose of 10 mg/week was given for 8 weeks to patients from dermatology. Results Mean pretreatment and post treatment PASI score shows drop from baseline (13.01±6.02) to eight weeks PT (5.4±3.2) which is statistically significant (P≤0.05). The change in percentage of PASI from baseline was analyzed by the Wilcoxon signed ranks test after 8 weeks (t=17.29) i.e. PASI 75 was achieved in more than 50% of participants. PA, that 26 out of 29 (96.29%) patients had moderate PA with DAS 28 score of less than 5 while 1(3.7%) patient had mild and 2(7.4%) had severe joint disease of greater than 5.1 DAS 28 score before methotrexate treatment. 17/29 (62.9%) achieved complete remission in joint disease after 8 weeks of methotrexate. Conclusion The outcome of this study has shown that the effective way to treat plaque psoriasis is through methotrexate. © 2023 Pakistan Association of Dermatologists. All rights reserved.