Elevated blood pressure level, which affects one in three adults in the U.S., is associated with a number of health risks. Individuals suffering from hypertension, for instance, are more likely to develop heart disease and suffer from stroke than individuals with normal blood pressure.
Doctors may prescribe beta blocker to patients with hypertension to reduce their blood pressure. Unfortunately, for women suffering from elevated blood pressure levels, this medication can put them at increased risk for psoriasis, an autoimmune disease marked by red, itchy and scaly patches on the skin.
Psoriasis affects 7.5 million individuals in the U.S. and while the condition is not transmissible, individuals suffering from the skin disease tend to be embarrassed of their condition. Earlier studies have found an association between psoriasis and a number of unwanted health conditions including psychiatric problems as well as autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases.
In a new study published in the journal Dermatology on July 2, researchers found that in women with hypertension, taking beta blockers can increase their odds for developing psoriasis. For the study, Abrar Qureshi, from the Department of Dermatology of the Warren Alpert Medical School in Brown University, Rhode Island, and colleagues tracked 77,728 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study from 1998 to 2008 and provided data on their blood pressure levels and antihypertensive medications every two years to assess the link of high blood pressure levels and blood pressure medications on risks for psoriasis.
Qureshi and colleagues found that after six years, women with high blood pressure had 27 percent increased risks for psoriasis compared with women with normal blood pressure. They also observed that in women who used beta blockers for at least six years, the risk was greater by 40 percent compared with women who have never taken the drugs.
Although the researchers looked at different types of blood pressure drugs, they also only found an association between psoriasis and beta blockers.
"Our study provides evidence that a prior history of long-term hypertension of 6 years or more was associated with an increased risk of psoriasis," the researchers wrote. "Among the individual antihypertensive drugs investigated in the study, only β-blockers were associated with an increased risk of psoriasis after long-term regular use for 6 years or more."
Qureshi cannot provide feasible explanation on the association but said it is possible that beta blockers have secondary effects of the body's immune system which leads to the development of psoriasis.
