Letters from the January 26, 2008, issue of Science News
By Science News
Bad medicine?
In “Unseen Risk: Lifestyle, physical problems may underlie psoriasis link to early mortality” (SN: 12/22&29/07, p. 389), the definition of patients with severe psoriasis as those needing systemic drugs raises the question whether treatment itself may be linked to early mortality. The journal article cited in the story indicates that some systemic treatments may be less toxic than others, but I found nothing to refute the hypothesis that mortality might be due to adverse reactions to the medication.