Table 3 Select Comments Regarding Itch Symptoms from Patient Focus Groups

Symptoms/itch

"You itch a lot. Scratch a lot, I mean." (Severe)

"Scratch to relieve." (Severe)

"It will spread over my whole body, the itching. I'll get scabs on my knees, on my elbows that (...) like yours (...) are very, very bad, and the more you scratch it, the worse it gets. (...) it just spreads." (Severe)

"The worst is, for me, is just the itching. The itch and the dry." (Severe)

"My itching, it gets inflamed. (...) It spreads – (...) And the more you scratch – you're scratching – (...) Mainly the itching." (Mild)

"Because I'm scratching everywhere, people not knowing the reason why I'm scratching." (Mild)

Change of psoriasis symptoms due to anxiety/worsen

"So that's the worst, that's when I start to get really anxious. And it, like I said, it can change over the course of a day. When I know I got to start getting ready for work, that puts me in a whole other frame of mind and I will notice that I'm itching a little bit more and or maybe my hands are not as calm as they are on my days off." (Severe)

Change of psoriasis symptoms due to stress/worsen

"Mine only itches when I'm under stress." (Severe)

"...I'll be thinking about it way too much, and then I'll start getting – affecting my skin, because the stress will make it outbreak, and then the outbreak, I'll want to itch, and just scratch..." (Severe)

Change of psoriasis symptoms over day/varies

"Yeah, for me it changes a lot too... Towards the end of the night is when it's usually more itchy for me." (Severe)

Change of psoriasis symptoms over week/varies

"...and then Sunday will hit, and then that's it. Then I'll start itching again, so it's like – and Mondays are so busy at work. And like towards Wednesday – that's – I don't know. It's like Monday and Wednesday. Those two days that – I don't know why those – hate those days. (Severe)

"The itching to me varies. (...) Just sometimes I don't even think about it and other times it just, boom, it's just itching." (Severe)

Impact on daily activities/difficulty concentrating

"You lose concentration, because you want to scratch and (...) really want to itch this, but you don't want to itch it in front of somebody, and so you trail off to what you were originally helping somebody with, if you're working." (Mild)

"Lack of concentration, or itchy – if you're really over-itchy, sometimes it's hard to concentrate on something else other than that whole-body itch." (Severe)

Impact on daily activities/choice of clothing

"For some reason whenever I have anything that's 100% cotton I tend to itch more. It gets irritated more, so everything is based on clothing or cotton. I try to buy a certain type of clothes. So and that's what I got to wear all the time." (Severe)

Impact on emotions/embarrassed

"I'm in front of people all day long, and it's incredibly embarrassing to start bleeding in front of someone, or scratching uncontrollably when you're not even thinking about it." (Severe)

"Mine is just more of embarrassment. When you're scratching and people see things coming off of you or on your clothing..." (Mild)

Impact on sleep/difficulty falling asleep

"Before you go to sleep yeah. (...) Because your itches." (Mild)

"It's itching instead of falling asleep." (Severe)

"It's falling asleep, when it's itching, and you – and then the minute you start scratching, it only makes it worse. But it's hard...You tell yourself not to scratch, but you think you're going to stop it, you know? And then you scratch it, it only makes it worse, and you want to scratch more, and scratch more. It's bad." (Severe)

Impact on sleep/difficulty staying asleep

"Well, no. I'm going to wake up, I'm itchy. I'm going to put some cortisone on, I'm going grease myself down – then I'm going to try and go back to bed." (Severe)

"Just, I want to rip my skin off, because it wakes me up. It's like it's never-ending." (Severe)

Miss days of school or work because of psoriasis/itch

"Yeah, you go every week and you get shots to stop you from itching." (Severe)

"And I had it on my feet really bad, and I actually missed several days of work... Well, it's the itching." (Severe)

"I can't just go out there (...) taking the train to work, being around a bunch of people, and coming back home – the whole time I just want to scratch and itch..." (Severe)