(HealthDay)—Individuals with co-occurrence of vitiligo and psoriasis have an increased risk for autoimmunity and family history of psoriasis, according to a research letter published online May 20 in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Dorine Canu, M.D., from Hôpital Saint-André in Bordeaux, France, and colleagues characterized the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with concomitant vitiligo and psoriasis in a single-center study conducted between January 2017 and January 2020. Data were included for 436 vitiligo patients, 74 of whom had a past and/or current personal history of psoriasis.

The researchers found that plaque-type psoriasis was the most common among patients with co-occurrence of psoriasis and vitiligo (48 patients). In 12 patients (16.2 percent), psoriasis lesions were located at the same site as vitiligo. In 62.2 percent of patients, the occurrence of psoriasis was reported before development of vitiligo, especially among those with colocalization of psoriasis and vitiligo (10 of 12 patients). In patients with co-occurrence of psoriasis and vitiligo, the mean age of vitiligo onset was significantly older. Patients with both psoriasis and vitiligo had an independently increased risk for autoimmunity and family history of psoriasis (odds ratios, 11.8 and 2.4, respectively).

"A better understanding of the pathomechanisms leading to the co-occurrence of psoriasis and vitiligo would improve the management of vitiligo, as the wide range of already approved targeted therapies for psoriasis could be tested in vitiligo," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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