Hair loss Treatment Center

PARTICIPANTS Amy Paller, MD Northwestern University Medical School Gail M. Zimmerman President and Chief Executive Officer, National Psoriasis Foundation Kylynn Welsh Psoriasis patient

Although psoriasis appears most often in adults, it can strike at any age. For children and young adults still developing a sense of 'self', the impact of psoriasis can be far-reaching.

AMY PALLER, MD: The emotional effects of psoriasis on children and on teenagers can be devastating. Imagine if you have red, scaling, ugly-looking spots on your skin that automatically makes you feel self-conscious. It makes you feel dirty, and it makes you feel different from other children.

KYLYNN WELSH: Sometimes people treat me differently because of my psoriasis. They usually stare or talk. But I usually ignore them or don't pay attention. It doesn't bother me.

GAIL ZIMMERMAN: The biggest challenge faced by children with psoriasis is how to respond to other children who may be teasing them. I think children who have not yet entered teenage years probably have a more accepting attitude about the psoriasis if the other children accept it.

ANNOUNCER: For older children, pre-teens and adolescents having psoriasis at this acute stage of development can be difficult to come to terms with.

AMY PALLER, MD: It is important for a teenager with psoriasis to get beyond what's going on in the skin, to see his or her own self-worth, and to make the commitment to get past it and to be recognized for the beauties within.

GAIL ZIMMERMAN: There are some more significant issues with teenagers about psoriasis. The biggest issue is dating and their prospects of dating. And their prospects of, as they get into college, will someone want to marry me.

ANNOUNCER: While having friends and feeling accepted by peers is a valuable lifeline for psoriasis sufferers, parents and primary caregivers play an even more instrumental role in helping their kids cope.

AMY PALLER, MD: It's very important that parents of a child who has a chronic, visible skin disease do not treat that child differently from the other children in the house. The child needs to actively participate in the disease treatment, and yet it shouldn't be made to be a burden.

KYLYNN WELSH: My friends and family help me out by not treating me differently and treating me normal. And they don't make me feel like an outcast.

ANNOUNCER: Identification with others can be a powerful self-confidence builder for teenagers at a crucial time in their social development.

AMY PALLER, MD: It's important to identify role models who can understand the situation and help to guide that teenager through what will inevitably be difficult times emotionally. It's helpful for the teenager to recognize that there are others, many others, who have this same disease. Psoriasis is a common disease among adults, but it's also not uncommon in teenagers.

GAIL ZIMMERMAN: Actually, I think for teens the best thing they can do is meet other teens. Information is important and helpful, but what they really need is, I think, reassurance from their peers that it's okay. That there are other people that have this and it's not unique to them.

ANNOUNCER: As with any medical condition, there are always practical approaches that can comfort and inform as well.

GAIL ZIMMERMAN: The National Psoriasis Foundation has a Website for children and teens. We offer a message board through which children and teenagers can talk to each other. We also have booklets designed just for teenagers and children. They can go on to the site and download these booklets, print them out for themselves. There are also booklets that they can give to their parents and teachers, educational tools.

KYLYNN WELSH: I know a lot of other kids with psoriasis in the United States and around the world. And if I'm having a bad day or they're having a bad day, then we would contact each other on the Internet and get advice from each other. Like what I would do and what they would do on a bad day. We basically make each other feel better.

AMY PALLER, MD: There's a wonderful camp sponsored by the American Academy of Dermatology called Camp Discovery. This is particularly geared towards teenagers and preteens with skin diseases. It's a one-week camp that we encourage people with more severe psoriasis to consider attending.

KYLYNN WELSH: Having psoriasis has been really cool because I've got to go to New York and meet other people with it. I've made lifelong friends. I've won contests. And I got to go to camp, where everybody there has psoriasis, even the counselors.

AMY PALLER, MD: My advice for parents of children with psoriasis is to look beyond the skin lesions, to recognize how wonderful the child with psoriasis is, and to focus on that. Don't treat the child any differently, and make the disease process not a burden, but something that makes the child special and something that the child can learn from and become unique and wonderful.