PATIENTS with severe skin conditions should be routinely treated with UV light, according to research.

A team at the University of Dundee has found light treatment is more effective than steroids creams and tablets, which can cause serious side effects and prove inadequate in bad cases of psoriasis or eczema.

Around two per cent of people in Scotland have psoriasis, while one in 20 adults and one in five children have eczema. The most severe forms of these diseases can blight the lives of sufferers, particularly during the cold winter months. Patients who do not respond well to steroids may be referred to a dermatologist for more intensive treatment, which may take the forms of pills, injections or filtered UV light, known as phototherapy.

The Dundee team, co-led by Dr John Foerster, Dr Robert Dawe and Professor Sally Ibbotson from the School of Medicine, examined the outcomes of 1,800 patients with severe psoriasis who received UV treatment over a six-year period.

They found three-quarters of patients experienced significant improvements in their condition and the need for steroid creams was reduced by 25 per cent.

Phototherapy involves safe, controlled delivery of narrow wavebands of ultraviolet radiation in specially constructed cabins.

It has been known to help skin disease sufferers for decades but this study is the first to demonstrate its use can reduce the need for steroids in the treatment of psoriasis in routine practice.

The findings also suggest many patients can delay or avoid altogether the need for oral or injection treatments, which can cause side effects such as gastric upset, liver dysfunction and infections.

Dr John Foerster, co-leader of the research, said: “Physicians have been using phototherapy or even direct sunlight to treat skin conditions for 50 years.

“We know it helps patients with psoriasis and eczema but until now we did not know it actually causes a reduction in the use of steroid creams and can reduce the need for patients to have their conditions controlled by tablets or injections.

“These can work well but can also have a downside.

“The form of treatment we are talking about is targeted, non-dangerous exposure to filtered light to treat skin conditions so severe that they can’t be contained with creams.

“We found there was a significant reduction in the amount of steroid cream prescribed to people who underwent phototherapy for up to 12 months after their treatment.”

Scotland is relatively well served with access to phototherapy with a two-six week waiting time in Tayside compared to three-six months south of the Border.

Dr Foerster added: “The success of satellite clinics, home phototherapy and self-treatment facilities in rural areas of Tayside shows how successful strategies can be developed and implemented. We would like to see these replicated across the UK.”

Psoriasis most commonly develops in the under 35s age group.

The condition results in red, flaky, crusty patches of skin covered with silvery scales on people’s elbows, knees, scalp and lower back, but can appear anywhere on your body.

Eczema is more usually found children than adults, and it generally eases off as they enter adulthood.

The patients were treated between January 2008 and April 2015, a period described in the report as the “maximum interval available” whereby all the data relating to the group was accessible for all individual treatment locations at the four centres co-ordinated by Tayside Department of Dermatology in Dundee, St Andrews, Perth and Stracathro.