**3. Biological therapies and pregnancy**

Despite their presently being no curative remedies for psoriasis, a wide assortment of specific molecular agents exist that are able to ameliorate the symptoms and produce remission. Delivering any of the aforementioned drugs varies primarily on the proficiency of the treating practitioner and only afterwards on the patient's personal choice. It is of utmost importance that women during childbearing age are aware that no studies have been conducted on whether or not these therapies are safe to use while pregnant. Consequently, should any of the biological treatments mentioned except for certolizumab be taken, they must be discontinued prior to conceiving a child. Considering certolizumab, as of writing this chapter, it is ostensibly the only discovered biological agent that fails to cross the maternal-placental barrier, and no adverse or teratogenic consequences were discovered if taken while pregnant [69]. In **Table 4**, we illustrate the minimal time interval suggested between discontinuing the medication and child conception [82].


#### **Table 4.**

*Systemic therapy and pregnancy interval.*

### **4. Conclusions**

Psoriasis is a debilitating disease with the potential to cause severe psychological damage. In spite of the plentiful advances vis-à-vis treatment, we are still a long way off from obtaining an actual cure. It is crucial to remember that current management strategies only address the symptoms, and not the cause. Therefore,

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**Author details**

strategy.

**Acknowledgements**

Dr. Remus Orăsan.

**Conflict of interest**

**Other declarations**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The authors have no further declarations.

Teodora-Larisa Timis1

Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: doratimis@gmail.com

\*, Daniela-Rodica Mitrea1

1 Department of Physiology, "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and

2 Department of Neurosciences, "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

and Ioan-Alexandru Florian2

*Medical Management of Chronic Plaque Psoriasis in the Modern Age*

those affected should be closely monitored even in the case of stationary disease or have regression. Moreover, not all therapies correspond to every patient due to possible comorbidities and drug interactions, and thus the notion of a miracle agent in psoriasis appears more and more illusory. This chapter aimed to provide a synopsis of modern treatment options of psoriasis, so that practitioners are sensitized of their uses, contraindications and adverse effects in order to choose the best available

The authors would like to acknowledge the continuous support of Prof.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90626*

*Medical Management of Chronic Plaque Psoriasis in the Modern Age DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90626*

those affected should be closely monitored even in the case of stationary disease or have regression. Moreover, not all therapies correspond to every patient due to possible comorbidities and drug interactions, and thus the notion of a miracle agent in psoriasis appears more and more illusory. This chapter aimed to provide a synopsis of modern treatment options of psoriasis, so that practitioners are sensitized of their uses, contraindications and adverse effects in order to choose the best available strategy.
