Psoriasis symptoms can be mild, moderate or severe, and can be disabling, especially for psoriasis patients who develop psoriatic (pronounced so-ree-AH-tik) arthritis, which causes painful joints. In individuals with darker skin tones, areas with psoriasis may look purple, dark brown, or dark gray as compared to red in individuals with lighter skin tones.
Signs and symptoms include:
- Raised, red, purple, brown or gray patches of skin covered with loose, silvery scales
- Bleeding where skin scales crack, flake or scrape
- Itchiness
- Pain
- Dryness
- Nail problems (tiny pits, yellowish colouring, build-up of dead skin under nails, nail dislodging or falling off)
- Scalp scaling or lesions
- Appearance of psoriasis about two weeks after a skin injury such as a cut, scrape or sunburn (called Koebner’s phenomenon)
- Pain, swelling, or stiffness in your joints
