Psoriasis: The 2000 Year Old Itch

The first mention of the disease we now know as psoriasis was by the Greek physician Hippocrates, who lived between 460 and 377 BC. Psoriasis appeared again in the first century AD in the writings of a Roman author named Cornelius Celsus. He described it as a variation of impetigo. In the late 1700s, the English dermatologist Robert Willan recognized psoriasis as its own condition. But it wasn't until 1841 that the condition was given the name "psoriasis" by Viennese dermatologist Ferdinand Hebra; he was also the first to describe the picture of psoriasis we have today. The word was derived from the Greek word "psora" meaning "to itch."