Abstract

With a long history, the treatment of psoriasis by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) could be divided into prophase, metaphase and anaphase. The earliest description of psoriasis dated back to A.D. 581 in ancient Chinese Song Dynasty. After that, a large number of treatment methods emerged with the increasing understanding of the disease. In this paper, a statistical analysis of the TCM category and frequency for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris (PV) in metaphase and modern times was performed to investigate its potential regularity. Different medications were applied for the treatment of PV in metaphase and modern times. In modern times, many prescriptions and TCM ingredients were confirmed to be effective for the treatment of PV. However, based on the clinical literatures, more systematic research methods were needed before the acceptance of evidence-based medicine.

Key words: Psoriasis vulgaris, traditional Chinese medicine, treatment, history.