About Dr. Papp

Like all my patients with psoriasis, I didn't find it so much as it found me.  When I first started in practice, I was overwhelmed with the number of patients with mild, moderate, and severe psoriasis.  The tools available were messy (the experts - some of whom were my teachers, emphasized ointments, tar, and anthralin), inconvenient (PUVA where the patient must take a bath in a special solution or take a pill which makes them super-sensitive to sunlight, then go to a clinic and be exposed for 10 - 15 minutes in a specialized photo-unit), or take medications which we had studied very little but knew that there were potentially significant side-effects which required very frequent monitoring.

I treated my psoriasis patients as best I could but it was frustrating for all of us.

My very first research study showed that there was hope for new medications for psoriasis. Very exciting, yes.  Wonderful?  No.  

Everyone had to be monitored very closely and despite working very well, most of the patients had to stop treatment after a year of treatment.  For someone with 20 years of psoriasis, the one year was helpful but...

A few hundred more patients and a few dozen clinical trials later, I began to appreciate the impact that psoriasis has on people's lives. The social and emotional problems, the physical and financial burdens.  I also began to appreciate the differences in treatments and how psoriasis can behave very differently between individuals and even in the same individual at different times.

I have treated thousands of psoriasis patients, some with minimal disease and others with incredibly extensive disease.  What started as a difficult and nuisance problem has become a major focus, the biggest driver in my professional life: better treatment for more of those suffering psoriasis.

No treatment works for everyone and no treatment works forever.  It is a constant search to find new and better therapies.