180COAL TAR COMBINED WITH ANTHRALIN IN SHORT CONTACT THERAPY IN MILD TO MODERATE PSORIASIS REDUCES PERILESIONAL IRRITATIONAnthralin, although for more than 80 years, has been a safe and mainstay in the treatment of psoriasis, perilesional irritation has compromised the patient’s compliance. Newer treatment modalities like alternative regimens "Short contact anthralin therapy" (10–60 minutes twice daily) used in combination with other antipsoriatic agents like corticosteroids, crude coal tar, calcipotriol, tazarotene increases the efficacy,reduces the perilesional irritation, thus improving the compliance. Anthralin in combination with crude coal tar together is of course not new and is used in the Ingram regime. Crude coal tar has been shown to have an atrophogenic effect on normal epidermis indicating that it can act as a cytostatic agent on normal human skin. However, clinical evidence suggested that the addition of coal tar reduces the perilesional irritation due to anthralin that resulted in a compromised efficacy of combinations. With this objective, a study in fifty patients having mild to moderate psoriasis was studied in a double blind randomized controlled study where twenty five patients in each group were treated either with short contact anthralin therapy combined with crude coal tar or anthralin only. The study reported that the odds ratio (OR) in patients treated with short contact anthralin therapy and coal tar at the end of first visit and second visit was 126 times and 27.6 times more likely not to get perilesional irritation compared to the patients treated with only anthralin. The mild to moderate irritation was significantly observed and reported in the patients treated with anthralin only. Thus, coal tar added to short contact anthralin therapy reduces the perilesional irritation without impairing the antipsoriatic action of the anthralin in mild to moderate psoriasis.drveenarm@gmail.comResearch812018Psoriasis,Anthralin, Coal tar,Short contact therapy,Perilesional irritationVeena RM, Sumathy TK,Cuckoo AiyappaAssociate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, BGS Global Institute of Medical Sciences Uttarahally, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.,Professor and Head, Dept of Dermatology, MS Ramaiah Medical college and Research Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India., Associate professor, Dept of Pharmacology MS Ramaiah Medical college and Research Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India