Physiotherapy is an indispensable treatment method for rheumatic diseases, including psoriasis arthritis, the inflammatory psoriasis in the joints. There are various treatment methods for psoriatic arthritis that can be used in physiotherapy. Physiotherapy is the most important way to alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis arthritis. The aim of physiotherapy is to reduce pain in the inflamed joints, improve movement and keep the joints generally mobile, and prevent long-term damage to the musculoskeletal system of the affected person.
Physiotherapy
When a patient with psoriatic arthritis comes to the physiotherapeutic facility, it is very important to first determine in a personal consultation what type of disease it is, what the symptoms are at the moment, how long the symptoms have been present, and the patient’s general health and age. Since psoriatic arthritis is an incurable disease, the main aim of physiotherapy is to treat the symptoms of the disease (pain, inflammation, stiffening of the joints) so that the patient can lead a relatively unrestricted daily life in the long run. For this reason, the treating physiotherapist draws up an individual therapy plan after the first anamnesis.
Depending on the type and severity of the disease, this plan can have many different contents. In case of acute attacks of the disease, passive forms of therapy are in the foreground. These include treatment with cold applications or the next form, cryotherapy, in which cold chambers are used.
The aim of cold applications is to relieve the patient’s pain and to calm the inflammation. Gentle movements of the affected joints performed by the physiotherapist should keep them mobile and stimulate the metabolism so that the pain subsides more quickly. In the phase between the individual attacks, physiotherapy consists primarily of strength, coordination, stretching, mobilization and stabilization exercises for the joints affected by psoriatic arthritis to prevent stiffening.
Sports such as swimming, aqua gymnastics, cycling and hiking are also good ways to stay active despite the disease and to do sports that are easy on the joints. Exercise school is also part of the physiotherapeutic treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Here, the movement patterns of the patient are analyzed and improved by the physiotherapist, so that a new relapse of the disease and possible long-term consequences cannot occur due to incorrectly executed movements or incorrect posture.
As a rule, the disease can be controlled so well with consistent and well executed physiotherapy that 30-40% of the patients can lead an almost symptom-free everyday life. If the disease is detected in its early stages, this is even the case for almost half of those affected. Physiotherapy is often used in combination with other therapy methods, including heat therapy (especially in the non-acute inflammatory phase of the disease) and cold therapy (especially in the acute phase in which the joints are thick and swollen and cause pain due to the inflammatory reaction).
A special form of cold therapy is the so-called cryotherapy, in which cold chambers are used (temperatures between minus 60 and minus 110°). The air in these cold chambers is very dry, so the extremely low temperatures are felt to be pleasant after a 1-3 minute stay. In psoriatic arthritis, the treatment plan for physiotherapy can be different for each patient, since the disease can manifest itself in many different ways and in different types. The article Physiotherapy for Rheumatism might be of interest to you in this regard
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