Red light therapy for psoriasis is drawing interest from people who want something different from the cycle of creams, clinic visits, and flare-ups. If you live with psoriasis, you're in large company: more than 7.5 million adults in the United States have it (Armstrong et al., 2021). You likely know the itch, the scaling, and the way stress can set off a flare. In a study of people with plaque psoriasis in Poland, more than 83% reported itch, and stress was the most common cause of flares, named by 66.2% (Purzycka-Bohdan et al., 2022). Red and near-infrared light therapy, which researchers call photobiomodulation, offers a UV-free approach that works inside the skin cell itself, and studies published in 2025 and 2026 have added to the evidence.
Key Takeaways
- What the research shows: In a 2025 study in Scientific Reports, red LED light slowed overactive skin-cell growth in cell cultures without killing the cells. It also reduced skin thickening in lab-grown human skin and in mice with psoriasis-like skin (Austin et al., 2025). In a 20-patient double-blind randomized trial, plaques treated with high-dose red light improved in scaling and thickness about as much as plaques treated with blue light (Kleinpenning et al., 2012).
- How it works: In lab studies, red light turned down a growth switch inside skin cells that drives psoriasis (Austin et al., 2025). A separate cell study found it lowered key inflammation signals and switched on the cells' own antioxidant defenses (Salman et al., 2023).
- Where the research is heading: Human studies of red light therapy for psoriasis have been small and encouraging. They range from a 20-patient randomized trial to a wearable-light pilot and a long-term case series. The Austin team behind the 2025 Scientific Reports study calls for longer treatment periods and larger groups of patients (Austin et al., 2025).
What Is Psoriasis, and Why Look Beyond Standard Treatment?
Psoriasis is an immune-driven skin condition in which skin cells grow far faster than normal. In psoriasis, new skin cells travel from the base of the skin to the surface in just 4 to 5 days, while healthy skin takes about five weeks to fully renew itself (Ortiz-Lopez et al., 2022). The extra cells pile up into the thick, scaly plaques you see and feel.
The immune system drives the skin-cell overgrowth in psoriasis. Immune cells release chemical signals that push skin cells to multiply, which keeps the cycle of plaque formation going (Austin et al., 2025).
Standard treatments each come with trade-offs. Narrowband UVB phototherapy is a first-line treatment for stable plaque psoriasis (Zhang & Wu, 2018). But it carries risks of early skin aging and skin darkening, and regular sessions can be hard to keep up because of travel, cost, and insurance coverage (Austin et al., 2025). Biologic medicines have changed psoriasis care, yet complete clearance is still out of reach for many patients. Some people can't use biologics because of medical reasons, side effects, or cost (Austin et al., 2025). In the United States, the median net yearly cost of a psoriasis biologic is $34,965 (Egilman et al., 2024).
The limits of standard psoriasis treatment are the reason to look at what red light therapy can add.
Narrowband UVB and biologics work, and they remain the foundation of psoriasis care. The trouble for many patients is that the underlying biology keeps resetting. The inflammation settles for a while, but the cellular environment that builds plaques hasn't changed. The photobiomodulation research interests me because it reaches processes upstream of the symptoms: the signaling inside skin cells, oxidative stress, and the behavior of immune cells. That's a different target from suppressing the immune system or destroying overactive cells, and it could complement existing treatment rather than compete with it.— William Carter, MD
How Red Light Therapy Works for Psoriasis
Research points to three ways red light works on psoriasis. It slows overactive skin-cell growth, calms the inflammation signals that drive plaques, and strengthens the skin's antioxidant defenses (Austin et al., 2025; Salman et al., 2023). Studies in people show what that looks like on actual plaques, and laboratory work shows how it happens.
Evidence tier: scientific review, cell study, and human imaging study.
Red and near-infrared light is absorbed mainly by a light-sensitive enzyme inside the mitochondria. Mitochondria are the parts of each cell that produce its energy. The same light can act very differently on healthy cells than on stressed ones (Hamblin, 2018). Toxin-damaged nerve cells responded best to 830nm and 670nm light, the wavelengths that match what that enzyme absorbs (Wong-Riley et al., 2005). In older adults, a specialized MRI method measured a significant rise in the brain's rate of energy production after 670nm light (Fear et al., 2023).
Evidence tier: scientific reviews, laboratory studies, and randomized safety trials.
Dose shapes the effect. Light therapy research shows a two-phase dose response: low doses stimulate cells, and high doses slow them down (Hamblin, 2017; Huang et al., 2009). The growth-slowing effects in psoriasis research came from carefully controlled, high-dose protocols (Austin et al., 2025). Doses that high also call for heat control. Two earlier randomized safety trials tested red LED light on healthy volunteers' skin, and reactions such as blistering capped how high the dose could go. Those trials set the safe limit at 320 J/cm² for skin of color and at 480 J/cm² for non-Hispanic white skin (Jagdeo et al., 2020). The Austin team notes those reactions, and the mice in their study were treated in air-conditioned cages (Austin et al., 2025). In a separate study, a lower dose increased skin-cell renewal instead (Umino & Denda, 2023), so the dose a device delivers shapes what it does.
What Clinical Studies Show in People With Psoriasis
Four kinds of clinical studies have tested red light therapy on psoriasis. They include a double-blind randomized trial, a clinical series in hard-to-treat psoriasis, a wearable-fabric pilot, and a long-term case series. Each reported improvement in psoriasis plaques.
Double-blind randomized pilot trial (20 patients). In a 2012 study, 20 patients each had two stable psoriasis plaques treated. One plaque got high-dose red light and the other got high-dose blue light, three times a week for four weeks. Both plaques also got a daily salicylic acid ointment to soften scale so the light could reach the skin. Plaques improved with both lights, and red light matched blue on scaling and plaque thickness. Blue light did better on redness, which kept improving under blue light throughout the study. The authors concluded that visible light could be a treatment option for psoriasis (Kleinpenning et al., 2012).
Preliminary clinical series (9 patients). Nine patients with chronic psoriasis took part, and most had not responded to standard treatment. They received near-infrared (830nm) and red (633nm) LED light in 20-minute sessions spaced 48 hours apart over four to five weeks, and some had a second course (Ablon, 2010). Three to eight months later, clearance ranged from 60% to 100%, and patient satisfaction was universally very high. Ablon described the treatment as pain-free, free of side effects, and well tolerated across all skin types.
Pilot study (wearable light fabric, 5 patients). In a 12-week pilot study, five people with mild elbow psoriasis wore sleeves made from a fabric that gives off red and near-infrared light. All of them kept taking their usual psoriasis medications. Three completed the study and two stopped on their own. All three who finished reported improvement, two showed measurable drops in plaque redness, thickness, or scale, and the third stayed stable. The researchers concluded that wearable red and near-infrared light may be associated with improvement in mild elbow psoriasis (Pixley et al., 2023).
Case series presented at a scientific conference. At SPIE Photonics West 2026, researchers presented a case series that followed patients who used a portable 850nm near-infrared LED device. Patients reported rapid relief from itching, plaque redness and thickness went down, and treated areas stayed in remission for more than a year without corticosteroids or biologics (Jimenez Garcia et al., 2026).
How Red Light Slows Overactive Skin-Cell Growth
Evidence tier: laboratory and animal studies.
Inside psoriatic skin cells, a key growth switch connects the immune system's signals to the runaway growth. Skin cells in psoriasis plaques show this switch turned on. Mice engineered to keep it on in their skin develop skin that closely resembles psoriasis. In the same research, blocking the switch both prevented new patches and reversed ones that had already formed (Sano et al., 2005).
A 2025 study in Scientific Reports by Austin and colleagues tested red LED light at 633nm in three models of psoriasis (Austin et al., 2025). The study's senior author, Jared Jagdeo, sits on the scientific advisory board of GlobalMed Technologies, which makes the LED panel used in the mouse experiments.
In the Austin team's skin-cell cultures, red light cut cell growth within 48 hours, with the higher dose working more strongly, and the cells survived. Red light also held back the extra growth triggered by a psoriasis-driving immune signal and lowered the activity of the growth switch that drives psoriasis plaques. A shift toward slower cell division pointed the same way, though that change didn't reach statistical significance (Austin et al., 2025).
The Austin team also tested lab-grown human skin triggered to thicken like a psoriasis plaque. After red light, that skin came out significantly thinner (Austin et al., 2025).
Austin and colleagues also treated mice with psoriasis-like skin. Daily red light reduced skin thickening whether treatment started alongside the trigger or after the changes had already set in. In the group treated after the changes appeared, treated skin measured 39.46 micrometers thick, compared with 51.51 micrometers in untreated mice, or about 23% thinner. The mice handled the treatment well (Austin et al., 2025).
The authors call theirs the first study to show that red light on its own works at set doses and wavelengths in cell and mouse models of psoriasis. They conclude that red LED light may offer an effective and cost-effective alternative to current treatments for mild to moderate psoriasis (Austin et al., 2025).
How Red Light Calms Psoriasis Inflammation
Evidence tier: cell study and scientific review.
Human skin cells exposed to an inflammatory irritant made significantly less of three key inflammation signals after 660nm red light (Salman et al., 2023). That calming effect depended on the cells' built-in defense system. When the researchers removed that system, the effect disappeared.
Lower inflammation is one of the most consistent effects of red and near-infrared light across the research, according to a review by Hamblin (2017). In cells that are already inflamed, the light lowers inflammation markers. It also lowers markers of an aggressive, inflammation-driving state in active immune cells. Animal studies show lower levels of other inflammatory chemicals as well.
How Red Light Strengthens the Skin's Antioxidant Defenses
Evidence tier: systematic review, cell study, and meta-analysis of randomized trials.
Psoriasis also brings oxidative stress. Unstable oxygen molecules build up and strain the cells. A systematic review of 79 studies found that markers of this strain run high in psoriasis and track with how severe and how long-lasting the disease is (Dobrică et al., 2022). In human skin cells under inflammatory stress, 660nm red light boosted the cells' own antioxidant defense pathway (Salman et al., 2023).
The antioxidant effect has been measured in people as well. A meta-analysis pooled 8 randomized trials with 140 healthy adults. It found that photobiomodulation reduced exercise-related damage to fats and proteins and raised the activity of one of the body's key antioxidant enzymes (De Marchi et al., 2022). The authors concluded that a single session can shift the body's oxidative balance.
What Reviews of Light Therapy for Psoriasis Conclude
Evidence tier: systematic and narrative reviews; meta-analysis in a related condition.
A 2017 systematic review described LED light therapy for psoriasis as a potentially effective, safe, portable, and cost-effective treatment option (Ho et al., 2017). A 2018 clinical review notes that near-infrared and red light show promise because they reach deep into the skin and act through photobiomodulation (Zhang & Wu, 2018). A 2026 review on seborrheic psoriasis concluded that photobiomodulation may be considered as an add-on option for localized psoriasis. The review points to experimental evidence that it affects inflammation signals, blood flow in the skin, and skin-cell overgrowth (Al-Mamoori et al., 2026).
Evidence from a related condition adds weight. Oral lichen planus is a chronic immune-driven condition of the mouth. In a 2024 meta-analysis, photobiomodulation worked about as well as other treatments for oral lichen planus on pain and clinical scores. Against topical steroids, it did about as well on pain (Soh et al., 2024).
Photobiomodulation also rests on a broad research base across medicine. A 2025 review of 15 meta-analyses covered 204 randomized trials with more than 9,000 participants. It found the strongest support for fibromyalgia, disability from osteoarthritis, and cognitive impairment (Son et al., 2025).
Red Light Therapy vs. UV Phototherapy for Psoriasis
Evidence tier: clinical review, human tissue study, and laboratory study.
Red light therapy and UV phototherapy both treat psoriasis with light, but they take different routes. Narrowband UVB, a first-line treatment for stable plaque psoriasis (Zhang & Wu, 2018), clears plaques in large part by triggering the death of overactive skin cells (Weatherhead et al., 2011). In the 2025 Scientific Reports study, red light slowed skin-cell growth and left the cells alive (Austin et al., 2025).
The Austin research group also reports that red LED light does not cause the two types of DNA damage that UV light is known for. Red light reaches deeper than blue light as well, through the full thickness of the outer skin layer where psoriatic plaques build up (Austin et al., 2025).
The Bottom Line on Red Light Therapy for Psoriasis
Red light therapy for psoriasis rests on a growing body of research. In lab and animal models, red light slows the runaway skin-cell growth behind plaques, calms inflammation signals, and strengthens antioxidant defenses. In people, a randomized trial, a clinical series, a wearable-light pilot, and a long-term case series all point in an encouraging direction. Larger trials will settle the ideal protocol. If you're weighing a UV-free option to use alongside your current care, the research offers solid reasons for interest. And it gives a clear view of what is still being worked out, which is enough to make an informed choice with your dermatologist.
