Taurine and Diet in Psoriasis

To the Editor.—  In their letter to the editor in the March Archives entitled "Improvement of Psoriasis With Cholestyramine" (1982;118:144), Skinner et al refer to the "astoundingly overlooked" 1962 observation by Roe¹ that cholestyramine induced improvement in 12 patients with psoriasis.In fact, that report and related reports by Roe stimulated our investigation as to the possible effect of exogenous taurine on psoriasis.² Taurine is conjugated with cholic acid to form taurocholic acid, one of the bile salts. Roe found increased fecal excretion of taurine in patients with psoriasis treated with cholestyramine, the bile acid sequestrant. Roe postulated that exogenous taurine had a "toxic" effect on the psoriatic process and found aggravation of psoriasis in patients given oral taurine. In our study, the conditions of only one of 13 patients taking large daily doses of taurine became noticeably worse, and thus we could not confirm Roe's findings. We