 [ Symptoms ] what triggers psoriatic arthritis [ Disease ] certain factors may trigger psoriasis including the following injury to the skin injury to the skin has been associated with plaque psoriasis for example a skin infection skin inflammation or even excessive scratching can trigger psoriasis sunlight most people generally consider sunlight to be beneficial for their psoriasis however a small minority find that strong sunlight aggravates their symptoms a bad sunburn may worsen psoriasis streptococcal infections some evidence suggests that streptococcal infections may cause a type of plaque psoriasis these bacterial infections have been shown to cause guttate psoriasis a type of psoriasis that looks like small red drops on the skin hiv psoriasis typically worsens after an individual has been infected with hiv however psoriasis often becomes less active in advanced hiv infection drugs a number of medications may aggravate psoriasis some examples are as follows lithium drug used to treat bipolar disorder beta blockers drugs used to treat high blood pressure antimalarials drugs used to treat malaria nsaids drugs such as ibuprofen motrin and advil or naproxen aleve used to reduce pain or inflammation emotional stress many people see an increase in their psoriasis when emotional stress is increased smoking cigarette smokers have an increased risk of chronic plaque psoriasis alcohol alcohol is considered a risk factor for psoriasis particularly in young to middle aged men hormone changes the severity of psoriasis may fluctuate with hormonal changes disease frequency peaks during puberty and menopause a pregnant woman is symptoms are more likely to improve than worsen during her pregnancy if any changes occur at all in contrast symptoms are more likely to flare in the period after childbirth if any changes occur at all