Image of plaque psoriasis
Previous Next 1 of 6 Plaque psoriasis

Plaque psoriasis, the most common form of psoriasis, causes dry, raised skin patches (plaques) covered with gray or silver scales. It may look different depending on your skin color, ranging from pink on white skin to brown or gray on brown or Black skin.

You may have just a few plaques or many. After the plaques clear up, the affected skin might temporarily be lighter (hypopigmentation) or darker (hyperpigmentation) than usual.

Your psoriasis may improve with certain lifestyle measures, such as:

  • Taking daily baths
  • Applying nonprescription cortisone cream and heavy, ointment-based moisturizer
  • Learning to identify and avoiding personal triggers of psoriasis, such as stress
  • Avoiding smoking

Moderate or severe cases may require light therapy, prescription steroid creams, coal tar products applied to the skin, oral or injected medications (systemic treatment), or a combination of these.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free, and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID-19, plus expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

See more Multimedia Nov. 09, 2022