Men tend to have a worse form of the disease than women. More patients develop involvement of their peripheral joints in the extremities than arthritic problems in the spine. Patient may complain of low back pain which may involve their sacroiliac joints, once again in an asymmetric fashion. In one out of five patients, the arthritis may actually precede the skin involvement with psoriasis itself and this may make the diagnosis more difficult to make at that point in time. Like other forms of inflammatory arthritis, patients may note morning stiffness which can last greater than one hour and even persist throughout the day.
All peripheral joints are susceptible to psoriatic arthritis along with the entire spine.
Patients may note worsening of their symptoms with cold or damp weather just as in other forms of inflammatory arthritis. Patients may note pain in the heel area when there is inflammation present. They may also have involvement of the eyes with redness and pain with inflammation of the vascular portion of the eye that may occur in association with their condition. On physical examination one may find involvement of the skin with raised scaly lesions that may have some redness associated with them along the edges. These may be found particularly over the scalp and along the hairline as well as over the ears.