Volunteers needed for Psoriatic Arthritis study

Do you have psoriasis and want to support research from the comfort of your own home?

Places are still available on the HIPPOCRATES Prospective Observational Study (HPOS), which looks at the factors leading to people with psoriasis going on to develop Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA).

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How can I take part?

Participants with psoriasis will be monitored over a three-year period to see who develops PsA.

The study will take place 100% online – participants will fill in questionnaires online and send small finger prick blood samples by prepaid post.

For more information, or to express an interest in taking part, you can visit the HPOS study website.

What are the long-term goals of the study?

The project, led by the University of Oxford in collaboration with University College Dublin, aims to understand how PsA develops in people with psoriasis, and eventually, to prevent its development completely.

HPOS is part of wider research called The HIPPOCRATES project investigating psoriatic arthritis across Europe. Over 25 research groups across Europe, led by Professor Oliver FitzGerald in Dublin, aim to answer 4 key research questions around:

1. Psoriasis diagnosis
2. PsA prediction
3. PsA response to therapies
4. Prognosis on who will get joint damage.

‘At the moment there is no way to predict which patients with psoriasis are likely to go on to develop joint problems. We think this group of patients will help us to completely change how we think about the development of PsA and how to predict it.

'It will help us to design prevention studies, where we would offer potential drug treatments or lifestyle interventions (like exercise or stress management) to see if we can prevent people with psoriasis developing arthritis.'