| "Treatment" | My result (plus opinions and suggestions) | Notes: |
| Liquid Nitrogen | I had one spot lightly sprayed with LN. After my spot healed the dry DSAP still remained. Understand that this is a HARSH treatment that can leave light skinned individuals with MORE redness. Glad that I only tried one test spot. After 2 years my test spot may be slightly redder than before treatment. I am not sure. | Try a test spot or spots. Run from any doctor who suggests initially freezing lots of spots. Mixed responses from people's emails regarding freezing. |
|
1% and 5% Fluorouracil AKA Efudex, Fluoraplex. |
Used 1% (Fluoraplex) for 6 weeks, then tried 5% on test spots for 4 weeks. It sort of irritated my DSAP. It only turned a bit redder during use. Doctor said to expect a red, raw, skin eruption but it never occurred. 2nd treatment on test spots with 5% for 6 weeks did nothing. Fluorouracil is designed to kill cells (like cancer) that grow much faster than DSAP, therefore DSAP cells will often be UNeffected and really only "irritated" by this medication! You might want to just AVOID this drug. | Not recommended. If you insist on trying it then try only a few test spots that are already red. Don't be surprised if the skin "eruption" never occurs! I have never heard of a positive end result from using this drug. |
| Dovonex Other variants include Calcipitrol. Tacalcitol. | Did absolutely nothing. I used on test spots for 5 months. No redness either. Very mild drug though. Did not exacerbate DSAP. note: Dovonex is the US variant of Tacalcitol, which supposedly cleared up a DSAP patient's skin described above. | Worth a try. Harmless to use large test area for 3 - 6 months. I have never received a promising email regarding using this drug. |
| Tazorac | I used once per day. After 2 weeks or so my DSAP started to turn red and the "threadlike borders" of DSAP started to exfoliate. After 2 1/2 weeks this medication would burn and itch for about 15 minutes when applied. Finally these spots kind of erupted and started to sort of scab so I discontinued. Did not help my DSAP. You might want to just AVOID this drug. | Not recommended. Harsh treatment. If you insist try only a few concealed test spots (that are already red) every other day to start. Never heard of it working for anyone. |
| Retin-A Micro More "advanced" version of Retin-A below. | Caused a red eruption much the same way that Tazorac did but without the burning and itching. After about 4 weeks of using it once per day I had to stop. It almost seemed to achieve the reaction that I was SUPPOSED to get from Fluorouracil. However the end result is that the DSAP remains after my skin healed. You might want to just AVOID this drug. | Not recommended. Try some test spots if you're feeling adventurous. Can be harsh. Never heard of it working for anyone. |
| Retin-A .025% | I tried a test spot for 6 months to see if Retin-A would bring down the redness. Didn't work. | Not recommended. Try test spot to treat only the redness of DSAP. Never heard of it working for anyone. |
| Aldara | Began testing on a spot 3 - 4 times per week. Then once or twice per day. Did nothing after 2 months use. No irritation or redness either. However one person who emailed me said that their skin was irritated by Aldara. | Try some test spots if you're feeling adventurous. Never heard of it working for anyone. |
| Rise and shine | 4 week detoxification w/ herbs & raw food diet. This is not a doctor prescribed program but rather my own experiment. The idea here is to free the body's natural immune defenses that might prevent or improve skin mutation, rather than to "medicate" DSAP. I tried it for about 3 weeks. Can't say that there was any improvement with DSAP on my arms. However someone emailed me and said their itching went away after doing other similar detoxification programs. | Not recommended for DSAP. This program takes a LOT of self control and dedication. |
CONCLUSION: After trying all of the above treatments, what course of action would I personally recommend to other DSAP patients? I would only suggest trying mild drugs like Dovonex and possibly Aldara. Both of these usually cause NO harsh skin reaction or "eruption". Most likely all of these medications will do nothing for you though. Some patients who have emailed me claim to have had good results from liquid nitrogen freezing, although it takes a long time to heal and the doctor has to freeze deep enough for best results, and some patients have negative reports from the same treatment. Continue to completely avoid the sun in order to reduce redness. All of the other treatments (mentioned above) are too harsh and only wind up making DSAP look redder. Avoid ingested treatments -- This seems like too much health risk for fighting something that is supposed to be incurable. There is a lot of psoriasis research as well as some actinic keratosis research going on. Hopefully a new medication that is designed for some other skin problem will work for DSAP in the future.