Is there any way to tell whether I will get psoriatic arthritis in the future?
No. At this time there is no signal that indicates whether an individual will get psoriatic arthritis in the future. No type of skin disease, blood result, or genetic test can give information that can predict whether or how psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, will change.
Organizations like the National Psoriasis Foundation have surveyed large numbers of people with psoriasis (more than 20,000 in the largest study) and have deter-mined factors that seem to be associated with psoriatic arthritis in some people. In large groups of people with psoriasis, those with severe disease or with nail psoriasis were more likely than those without these changes to get psoriatic arthritis at some point in their life.
It is important to emphasize that the data on psoriatic arthritis come from studies of thousands of people and don’t predict how psoriasis will behave in an individual. Although this information can suggest factors that might make a person more or less likely to develop psoriatic arthritis, each person is different. Careful observation of the skin and joints in an individual is the best way to monitor for changes in psoriasis and the development of joint disease.