Psoriasis creams in Spain

[Sallysoup]

Hi, this is quite niche but I'm travelling to mainland Spain this weekend, my psoriasis is flared at the moment and none of my usual creams including hydrocortisone are touching it. Is there anything available OTC in Spanish pharmacies or shops that might be worth trying while I'm there?

Thanks

I can't give any concrete advice, but if you translate your post into Spanish with a good site like DeepL.com and show it to a pharmacist, they may be able to help. Although my guess is that they will have access to the same molecules as everywhere else, just with different excipients.

Pretty sure it's available otc in Spain. It's called Hidrocortisona.

Duh didn't read that properly! I'm sure they will be able to give you something, I have had a couple of allergic reactions to something that caused contact dermatitis and the farmacia gave me cream that was amazing. Brought it home with me, but don't have it anymore. It wasn't hydrocortisone, as I try to avoid that if I can.

This is going to be absolutely 0 help to you because we don't know the name of it but I'll tell you anyway.

My mum has horrendous psoriasis. Nothing works. About 20 years ago we were in Spain and were chatting to the barmaid, the psoriasis came up in conversation and she said I have a cream that would work for that. She pulled out a plain white metal tube of cream and handed it to my mum. She said I've no idea what's in it but it'll work. My mum tried it and it actually worked. Dread to think what's in it. GP at home has never been able to offer anything to help mum.

The cream is now affectionately named 'boiled cat cream', because after that first tube my sister said 'Christ mum what's in it! Could be boiled cats or anything don't use it!'

She now lives in the same place we used to holiday and still gets the same back door god knows what's in it cream from some slightly dodgy guy that the mermaid knew. It's still the only thing that works. Maybe go to the pharmacy and ask around, it does exist.

Barmaid not mermaid! Just to make the boiled cat cream even more mysterious 🧜

😆😆 oh no I was looking forward to finding this mysterious healing mermaid.

I had a similar chinese herbal cream off amazon that was wonderful for a while, but my psoriasis seems to stop responding to creams after a few months, so I try to switch quite regularly.

I'll have a nosy in the pharmacy anyway, sometimes just changing to a different active ingredient helps and I've exhausted boots and amazon 🙁

Just to add the recommended creams from my dermatologist got it under control in the beginning but are not very effective anymore, I'm not just self treating and looking for mermaids 😅

My mum has an extremely stubborn area of psoriasis which only responds to extremely strong treatment - the sort her doctor never wants her to continue with for very long.

However, she used to travel to Portugal a lot, and there she would be treated with an algae-based cream, which always cleared the psoriasis up. Unfortunately neither of us can remember what the cream was called.

Perhaps there are similar creams in Spain.

Another thing that has helped dm is Dead Sea Salt. It has to be a very pure brand - just concentrated Dead Sea salt or mud, nothing to make it smell better in any way. It doesn't cure the patch entirely, but it substantially reduces in size, appearance and irritation.

If your prescription creams aren't working then I doubt anything OTC will be better. It used to be the case that you could buy medications from a pharmacy in Spain that would require a prescrition here but not any more.
What you could do is go to a Spanish NHS walk in and see someone. You only need a GHIC and passport.

Is this it? https://galenicumderma.com/product/cuatrocrem/

I have a tube of it. It has four active ingredients: an antiseptic, an anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic, and an antifungal. Basically, whatever is wrong with your skin, it will treat it. But I think it needs a prescription, so OP might want to take PP's advice and try a local (public) health centre with her GHIC. The health centre might say that it's out of scope (GHIC is for urgent/ongoing care) but it could be worth a try.

@samarrange I have no idea. It's in a plain white tube, nothing printed on it.

Deffo boiled cat then!