How to Differentiate Other Forms of Arthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis, With Shikha Singla, MD

A session titled ‘Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis’ was presented at the 2025 Society of Dermatology Physician Associates (SDPA) Fall Conference in San Antonio.1

Shikha Singla, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, was a co-presenter at this talk. Singla sat down with the HCPLive team at the SDPA meeting to discuss the takeaways from her talk on psoriasis and its overlap with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).1,2

“Psoriatic arthritis is a multifaceted disease,” Singla expressed. “It involves a lot of domains. Skin is one of them, joints, and there are some other clinical manifestations as well, which are extra-musculoskeletal, such as IBD, which is Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and uveitis. The management of psoriatic arthritis is done in a multidisciplinary fashion. It is very important to have collaborations with the sub-specialties, such as your dermatologist, the gastroenterologist, and the ophthalmologist.”

Singla was asked about several different points highlighted in her session at SDPA, including her views on whether there is an adequate level of interdisciplinary collaboration between dermatologists and rheumatologists.

“No, I think there needs to be a lot more,” Singla said. “I hear that it is very difficult to get in touch with sub-specialties through consults or end referrals. It takes a long time. There's usually a long waiting list. In our clinic, it's interesting because a dermatologist goes and sees the patients first and screens them for psoriatic arthritis, and I'm sitting right there to see these patients. So there's no waiting list for the patients and and we also make decisions collaboratively.”

In her interview, Singla was also asked about ways to differentiate between different forms of arthritis and PsA. She noted her talk’s point on joint pains being caused by various conditions, such as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

“Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common type of inflammatory arthritis in which patients develop polyarticular, bilateral, symmetrical joint pain and swelling, as compared to psoriatic arthritis, where you can have inflammation, that you can have a polyarticular symmetric joint involvement,” Singla explained. “But we often see involvement of oligoarticular joints. That means less than five joints…and there's axial involvement also seen in a few patients, as well as dactylitis, which is swelling of the whole digit. And we don’t see that in patients with rheumatoid arthritis that often.

View the above interview for any additional information. To learn more about topics like these presented at SDPA, view the latest conference coverage.

The quotes implemented in this video summary were edited for clarity.

Singla had no relevant financial disclosures to include.

References

1. Singla S, Gordon K. Psoriasis & Psoriatic Arthritis. Presented at the Society of Dermatology Physician Associates (SDPA) Fall Conference, November 5-9, San Antonio, TX.

2. Pap T, Sunderkötter C. Psoriasis versus Psoriasisarthritis : Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in der Pathophysiologie [Psoriasis vs. psoriatic arthritis : Similarities and differences in the pathophysiology]. Z Rheumatol. 2017 Aug;76(6):477-483. German. doi: 10.1007/s00393-017-0342-0. PMID: 28664285.