Haut-Tief Patient Education on Psoriasis and Eczema

A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Study of the Impact of Education and Stress-reduction Techniques on Psoriasis and Eczema.

'Haut-Tief' (Skin Deep) is an educational, stress reducing program for patients with psoriasis or atopic dermatitis. A range of support activities will be offered in order to learn effective self-management strategies and attitude to one's chronic skin disease and consequently improving quality of life.

The educational program consists of 2-hours of educational (dermatology, specialized nurse, psychologist) and stress-reduction sessions (yoga, meditation, physiotherapy) twice a week during 9 weeks.

A multidisciplinary team of trainers is involved. Primary endpoint is the general and skin dependent quality of life measured by questionnaires. HRQoL (Health-Related Quality of Life) is measured at baseline, after 3 months, 6 months and 9 months follow up. Patients are recruited from the out-patient clinic at the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital Zurich. Patients are randomized in an intervention and control group. Intervention group receives the education program additionally to follow-up visits whereas the control group receives follow-up visits. Several runs are planned.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Chronic psoriasis (disease for more than 3 months)
• Chronic eczema (disease for more than 3) months)
• Age ≥ 18 years
• Oral and written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• systemic antiinflammatory therapy
• treatment with other investigational products
• other clinically significant concomitant disease states (e.g., renal failure, hepatic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, etc),
• known or suspected non-compliance, drug or alcohol abuse,
• inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to language problems, psychological disorders, dementia or confusional state of the subject
• participation in another study within the 30 days preceding and during the present study, (viii) previous enrollment into the current study,
• enrolment of the investigator, his/her family members, employees and other dependent persons.