METHOTREXATE;

Objectives: To determine the efficacy of methotrexate as a treatment option forplaque psoriasis. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Dermatology Department, ofLiaquat University hospital Hyderabad. Period: 6 month duration from January 2016 to June2016. Material & Methods: All the cases more than 20 years of the age having severe-tomoderatechronic plaque psoriasis were selected in the study. All the patients were underwentcomplete medical history and clinical examination. All the patients with history of severecomorbidities were not included. All the patients were underwent oral methotrexate treatment.All the information as: disease duration, involved site and plaque size was recorded. Efficacywas assessed according to PASI score on starting and after 12 weeks. Results: Patients’ meanage was 40.73 years. Male were found in the majority 75.50%, while 24.50 % were female. Inthis study mean duration of disease was 7.38 + 3.46 months and mean duration of plaque sizewas 6.63+ 2.07. Commonest site involved in psoriasis was scalp+elbow seen in 27(55.1%).Psoriasis show significant good outcome after treatment of methotrexate, 9 patients did notcompeted their treatment in remaining 40 cases starting PASI score was 11.97+1.40 and after12 weeks treatment significantly decreased as 6.48+2.45 and mean of clearance time was8.10+2.02 weeks. Conclusion: Methotrexate showed significant satisfactory results in thetherapy required for plaque psoriasis as well as enhanced quality of life.