Compare · Conditions

Palmoplantar Psoriasis vs Athlete’s Foot

Psoriasis affecting the palms or soles, where thick scale and cracking can be disabling. Athlete's foot is a fungal infection of the outer layer of skin on the feet. It causes itching, peeling and cracking, most often between the toes. It clears with antifungal creams from a pharmacy, and it comes back easily if the shoes, socks and toenails are not dealt with as well.

Research updated 2026-10-23
AI-generated educational illustration: Thick sharply defined scaly plaques across the palm and fingers, representing palmoplantar psoriasis.Athlete’s Foot: 1. Athlete’s Foot Header — Light Skin; Lighter skin.
Key differencesWhat is it?What it looks likeDiagramsWhen it startsTriggersDaily CareTreatmentOutlookComplicationsWhen to get helpQuestions

Key differences

The same eight facts on every condition comparison.

Usual age
Adults
Teens and adults
Where
Palms and soles
Between toes, soles
Main sign
Thick scale and cracks
Itchy, peeling, cracked skin
Itch or pain
Painful cracks
Itchy
Contagious
No
Yes, on shared floors
Long term
Long-term, flares
Clears with cream; often returns
Scars
No
No
Who gets it
People with psoriasis; smokers
Sweaty feet, shared showers

What is it?

Palmoplantar Psoriasis
Athlete’s Foot
What is it?
  • What it is
    Psoriasis affecting the palms or soles, where thick scale and cracking can be disabling.
  • It is a fungal infection.
    Tinea pedis is infection of the outer foot skin by dermatophyte fungi.
  • It takes several forms.
    It can cause peeling between toes, scale across the sole or itchy blisters.
  • Not every peeling foot is fungal.
    Eczema, contact allergy and psoriasis can look similar.
  • Some people should act early.
    People with diabetes, poor circulation or reduced immunity should seek advice early for skin breaks.

What it looks like

Palmoplantar Psoriasis

An open hand with broad pink plaques, thick white scale, and surface cracks.

Palmoplantar Psoriasis Red patches and heavy scale cover much of the palm and parts of the fingers.

Athlete’s Foot

Athlete’s Foot: Between the toes; Interdigital.

Interdigital athlete’s foot Between the toes; the most common type.

Athlete’s Foot: Moccasin scale; Moccasin.

Moccasin-type athlete’s foot Dry, thick scale on the sole and sides.

Athlete’s Foot: Blisters; Vesicular.

Vesicular athlete’s foot Small blisters, usually on the arch.

Skin tones
Palmoplantar Psoriasis on light skin.
Palmoplantar Psoriasis.
Palmoplantar Psoriasis.
Palmoplantar Psoriasis.
Athlete’s Foot: 1. Athlete’s Foot Header — Light Skin; Lighter skin.
Athlete’s Foot: 2. Athlete’s Foot Header — Medium Skin; Medium skin.
Athlete’s Foot: 3. Athlete’s Foot Header — Brown Skin; Brown skin.
Athlete’s Foot: 4. Athlete’s Foot Header — Deep Skin; Darker skin.
Diagram
Athlete’s Foot mechanism diagram. Fungi reach the surface: Dermatophytes spread through contact. They grow in keratin: The fungi live in the outer skin layer. Skin flakes and becomes irritated: Moisture can encourage cracking and peeling.
In the skin

Immune inflammation speeds skin-cell production on the palms or soles. Cells accumulate in thickened patches that may develop scale or cracks.

Dermatophyte fungi grow in the keratin of the outer skin of the feet. Moisture favors their growth, and the resulting irritation can cause itching, peeling and cracks.

When it usually starts

010203040506070+

Palmoplantar Psoriasis. Can start at any age, with different patterns at different life stages.

Athlete’s Foot. More common after puberty and in adults, especially with persistently damp feet.

Causes and triggers

Causes

Immune inflammation speeds skin-cell turnover; psoriasis is not contagious.

Athlete's foot is caused by fungi that thrive in warm, damp places. They grow in the skin between the toes and on the soles.

Risk factors
Family tendency, Immune susceptibility
Sweaty feet, Tight, closed shoes, Diabetes, Weakened immunity
How it spreads
  • Barefoot in locker rooms and pools — Well established
  • Shared towels and shoes — Strong link
  • Damp socks worn all day — Strong link
Trigger
● Palmoplantar Psoriasis
● Athlete’s Foot
Friction
Can contribute
Not listed
Skin injury
Can contribute
Not listed

Daily Care

Palmoplantar Psoriasis
Athlete’s Foot
Daily care

Habits that help

  • Moisturize regularly with a plain fragrance-free product
    Apply after washing and when skin feels dry or tight.
  • Keep washing gentle and water lukewarm
    Use a non-soap cleanser and pat dry rather than rubbing.
  • Protect sore skin from friction and minor injury
    Comfortable clothing and gentle handling reduce avoidable irritation.
  • Keep a manageable record of flares and symptoms
    Note new medicines, infections or joint symptoms to discuss at review.
  • Protect painful cracks and reduce pressure on palms and soles
    Use suitable dressings, cushioned footwear and task-appropriate gloves; do not cut thick scale with a blade.
  • Follow the palmoplantar psoriasis care plan
    Use thick emollient, protect fissures and reduce repeated friction. Treatment must account for thick skin.

Avoid

  • Avoid: Picking scale or scratching plaques
    Injury can worsen psoriasis and create breaks in the skin.
  • Avoid: Unsupervised tanning or harsh home exfoliation
    Sunburn and irritation can trigger worsening; prescribed phototherapy is different from tanning.

Habits that help

  • Dry between the toes deliberately
    A separate corner of the towel, or a cool hairdryer.
  • Change socks when they are damp
    The number of changes beats the fabric.
  • Alternate two pairs of shoes
    Drying time makes the inside less hospitable.
  • Wear sandals on communal floors
    Where most reinfection starts.
  • Wash socks, towels and mats hot
    Cuts the fungus circulating at home.
  • Complete the antifungal course specified for your product
    Treatment length differs between antifungals. Complete the product-specific course rather than extending every medicine for a fixed extra period.
  • Treat heavy foot sweating
    An antiperspirant made for feet treats the cause.
  • Reduce prolonged heat and dampness when possible
    Recurrences cluster in summer.

Avoid

  • Avoid: Wearing the same shoes every day
    Shoes need about 24 hours to dry inside.
  • Avoid: Closed, non-breathable footwear
    Boots and heavy trainers hold sweat against the skin.
  • Avoid: Not drying between the toes
    Wet web spaces are what the fungus wants.
  • Avoid: Leaving damp socks on
    Keeps the skin softened for hours.
  • Avoid: Walking barefoot on wet floors
    Where most people meet it.
  • Avoid: Sharing towels, shoes and clippers
    How it spreads and reinfects a treated foot.
  • Avoid: Picking and peeling loose skin
    Tears the barrier open and spreads it.
  • Avoid: Strong home soaks
    Bleach and vinegar damage skin more reliably than fungus.
  • Avoid: Putting underwear on before socks
    A known way of moving fungus to the groin.
  • Avoid: Stopping the cream when itching stops
    The itch goes long before the fungus.
  • Avoid: Treating the skin, not the nails
    Nails reseed the skin with every sock.
  • Avoid: Untreated feet in the household
    The shared bathroom floor keeps it going.
  • Avoid: Vinegar and bleach soaks
    Avoid harsh home soaks that irritate and crack the skin.
  • Avoid: Hydrocortisone
    A steroid cream calms the itch, so it feels like it is helping, while the fungus spreads underneath with less to show for it. The rash it leaves is harder to recognize and harder to treat, and it makes a later scraping unreliable. Do not put a steroid on an undiagnosed foot rash.
  • Avoid: Steroid-antifungal creams
    Combination creams that mix a steroid with an antifungal are still prescribed for itchy foot rashes. The steroid takes the itch away quickly and lets the fungus spread wider and deeper, which is a common route to a longer, harder-to-treat infection. A plain antifungal is the better choice on a foot.

Treatment differences

Evidence labels come from each condition’s own treatment list.

Treatment
● Palmoplantar Psoriasis
● Athlete’s Foot
Filter by type
All types
Athlete’s foot type

Select one or more.

Over-the-counter

Urea moisturizer

Listed

Can soften thick dry scale; avoid irritating open fissures.

Existing educational treatment illustration: Spinosad

Terbinafine cream

Strong evidence

The most effective thing you can buy for athlete's foot, and the shortest course: once or twice a day for one to two weeks between the toes. It kills the fungus rather than just stopping it growing, which is why it works faster than the older creams. It will not clear an infected toenail, and it will not clear thick sole scale on its own.

Clotrimazole or miconazole cream.

Clotrimazole or miconazole cream

Strong evidence

The cheap, widely available option, applied twice a day for four weeks. It works well, it just takes longer than terbinafine, so the temptation to stop early is greater. Cover the whole foot and both feet, and carry on for one to two weeks after the skin looks normal.

Ketoconazole cream.

Ketoconazole cream

Strong evidence

Another azole cream, sold over the counter in some places and on prescription in others. It is a reasonable alternative if clotrimazole or miconazole has irritated the skin. It is no faster than they are, and the same four-week discipline applies.

Existing illustration of Antifungal powder.

Antifungal powder and sprays

Limited evidence

Powder keeps feet and the inside of shoes dry and lowers the amount of fungus you put back on your foot each morning. It is prevention, and it is good at it. It is not strong enough to clear an established infection, so use a cream to clear it and powder to keep it away.

A white small dropper bottle on a white background, with a plain white label reading Aluminum Chloride and a blue swoosh beneath it.

Foot antiperspirant

Limited evidence

An aluminum-based antiperspirant made for feet cuts the sweating that keeps the skin soft and the shoe damp. It treats the cause of recurrence rather than the infection itself. Useful for people who clear it every time and get it back every summer.

Five white jars of 40% urea cream lined up, several also listing 2% salicylic acid

Urea

Limited evidence

A urea or salicylic acid cream thins the hard scale on the sole so an antifungal can actually reach the skin underneath. It is a helper, not a treatment: on its own it does nothing to the fungus. It is worth adding for the dry moccasin pattern, where cream otherwise sits on top of the thickened surface.

Five dark glass tea tree essential oil bottles with glass droppers and one green box on white

Tea Tree Oil

Limited evidence

Tea tree oil has some antifungal activity and a few small studies behind it, but it clears fewer infections than the pharmacy creams and takes longer. It also causes allergic reactions on the feet often enough to matter. An antifungal cream costs about the same and works.

Prescription topicals

Potent topical corticosteroid

Listed

Thick palm or sole psoriasis may need a carefully supervised course and escalation if function is impaired.

Ciclopirox

Strong evidence

Ciclopirox nail lacquer. An older nail lacquer, applied daily for up to a year with the build-up removed weekly. It clears only a small share of infected nails on its own. It is worth knowing about, but if the nails are the reason your feet keep flaring, tablets are the conversation to have.

An illustrative Jublia nail-solution bottle with brush applicator.

Jublia

Limited evidence

Efinaconazole nail solution. A liquid painted on infected toenails daily for about a year, for people who cannot take antifungal tablets. It matters here because an untreated nail is the usual reason foot skin keeps getting reinfected. Cure rates are well below tablets, and it works best on nails that are only mildly affected.

Prescription pills
None listed
Terbinafine — Header Image

Terbinafine

Moderate evidence

Terbinafine tablets. The first-choice tablet for athlete's foot that cream cannot reach: the thick moccasin pattern, widespread infection, and infected toenails. Two weeks usually clears the skin; nails need three months and most of a year to grow out. Liver blood tests are sometimes checked, and it interacts with several common medicines, so the doctor needs your full list.

Representative medication packaging labelled Itraconazole, lying sideways on a white background.

Itraconazole

Moderate evidence

An equally effective alternative, often given as short pulses rather than daily. It is chosen when terbinafine does not suit or has not worked. It interacts with a long list of other medicines, including some heart and cholesterol drugs, so it needs a proper medication review first.

16:9 hero for Fluconazole. Never cropped: the tone strip and the corner logo depend on the full frame.

Fluconazole

Moderate evidence

A once-weekly tablet, used for skin infection that has not cleared with cream when the other two do not suit. It is less effective than terbinafine for the dermatophytes that cause athlete's foot, and slower for nails. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, ask the doctor managing your pregnancy before taking any antifungal tablet.

Illustration: Generic oral tablet bottle and tablets.

Griseofulvin

Limited evidence

The oldest antifungal tablet. It still works, but it needs months rather than weeks, has to be taken with fatty food, and clears fewer infections than terbinafine. It is now mostly reserved for cases where the newer tablets cannot be used.

Outlook

Long term

Palm and sole psoriasis can be persistent and may flare again after improvement. Treatment aims to reduce thickening, cracks and pain while preserving hand and foot function.

Athlete's foot does not clear on its own. Left alone it becomes a low-grade infection that flares in hot weather, and it spreads across the sole, onto the top of the foot, into the toenails, and sometimes to the groin or hands. Treated, it behaves well.

Complications

Possible complications

Psoriasis can accompany inflammatory joint disease. Report persistent joint stiffness or swelling.

  • Cellulitis
  • Nail Fungus
  • The Itchy Hand Rash
More details

Cellulitis
Cracks between the toes are a well-recognized way for bacteria to get into the leg, causing a hot, swollen, spreading redness that needs antibiotics. It is uncommon in healthy feet and much more likely in people with diabetes, poor circulation or a swollen leg. Treating athlete's foot promptly in those groups is mostly about closing that door.

Nail Fungus
The same fungus moves into the toenails, which become thick, crumbly and yellow-brown. Cream cannot get through a nail, so an infected nail keeps putting fungus back on the skin every time a sock goes on. It is the usual answer to why athlete's foot keeps coming back, and it takes tablets and most of a year to fix.

The Itchy Hand Rash
Some people get an itchy blistering rash on the palms or the sides of the fingers while their feet are flaring. There is no fungus in the hand rash. It is an allergic reaction to the fungus on the feet, which is why antifungal cream on the hands does nothing, and it settles once the feet are treated.

When to get help

When to get help

Seek care for painful cracks, widespread flares, joint symptoms or uncertain diagnosis.

Seek care if antifungal treatment does not help, or sooner with diabetes, poor circulation, spreading redness, swelling or pain.

Common questions

Palmoplantar Psoriasis:What is Palmoplantar Psoriasis?

Psoriasis affecting the palms or soles, where thick scale and cracking can be disabling.

Palmoplantar Psoriasis:What can I do day to day?

Use thick emollient, protect fissures and reduce repeated friction. Treatment must account for thick skin.

Palmoplantar Psoriasis:When should I get medical advice?

Seek care for painful cracks, widespread flares, joint symptoms or uncertain diagnosis.

Athlete’s Foot:How long does it take to clear?

The itch settles in a few days. The skin takes two to four weeks, depending on the cream and how thick the scale is. Keep treating for one to two weeks after it looks clear, because the fungus outlasts the symptoms. If nothing has changed after four weeks of proper use, the question is whether it is really fungus, not whether you need something stronger.

Athlete’s Foot:Do I need to throw away my shoes?

Usually not. Shoes hold fungus, so alternate two pairs to let each dry fully for a day, and use an antifungal powder or spray inside them. Shoes you cannot clean or dry - old fabric trainers you wore through a long infection - are reasonable to replace.

Athlete’s Foot:Do I have to treat my toenails too?

If they are thick, crumbly, lifting or discolored, yes, and that is usually why it keeps coming back. Fungus inside a nail is out of reach of creams, so the nail is a permanent source that reinfects the skin. Treatment usually means tablets for several months, and the nail only looks normal once healthy nail has grown all the way out.

Athlete’s Foot:Can I give it to my family?

Yes, though it is not highly contagious. It spreads through shared floors, bath mats, towels, shoes and nail clippers. Use your own towel, wear something on your feet in the bathroom while it is active, wash mats and socks hot, and do not share footwear. If someone else has itchy feet, treat both of you at once.

Athlete’s Foot:Why do I keep getting it back?

Three usual reasons, all fixable. You stopped treating when it looked better rather than a week or two after. Your toenails are infected and reseeding the skin. Or your feet sit in a warm damp shoe all day.

Athlete’s Foot:Why did my hands break out when my feet were bad?

Most likely an id reaction - an allergic response elsewhere on the body to fungus on the feet. The hand rash has no fungus in it, which is why antifungal cream there does nothing, and it settles once the feet are treated. There is also a separate pattern where two feet and one hand are genuinely infected, typically the hand used to pick at the toes. A scraping tells them apart.

Sources

Sources and further reading

  1. Psoriasis of the palms and soles
  2. DermNet
Dermapedia on YouTube