Conception and pregnancy: other considerations

Psoriatic arthritis and pregnancy

Although medications should be limited during conception and pregnancy, this may be impossible for those who have psoriatic arthritis. Some pain medications can be used safely during pregnancy. Talk with your doctor about all over-the-counter and prescription medications you take before conception, during pregnancy and while nursing.

Genetic aspects of psoriasis

Psoriasis is believed to be a genetic disease, but it does not follow a typical dominant or recessive pattern of inheritance. No one can predict who will get psoriasis as researchers do not completely understand how psoriasis is passed from one generation to another. The pattern of inheritance probably involves multiple genes or combinations of many genes, and the search is on to find those genes.

About one out of three people with psoriasis report that a relative has or had psoriasis. If one parent has psoriasis, a child has about a 10 percent chance of having psoriasis. If both parents have psoriasis, a child has approximately a 50 percent chance of being diagnosed with the disease.

Studies of identical twins with psoriasis show that psoriasis is at least partially genetic. But those same studies also reinforce the complexity of psoriasis. In about one-third of identical twin pairs where psoriasis is present, only one twin has the disease, indicating that environmental factors or “triggers” play a role in who develops psoriasis. The theory that psoriasis is triggered by a combination of genes and external forces is called "multifactorial inheritance." Once the genes responsible for psoriasis are discovered, the inheritance pattern may be better understood.