Table 4.

Prior Treatment Experiences: Subcodes and Exemplary Quotations

Subcode	Exemplary quotation
Lack of treatment success	“Rather negative experiences, that nothing improved […] again, there was no progress” P4 (female, 66 years)
Short-termed treatment success	“In the past, yes, with the creams and then also light and bath therapy, […] it helped for a short time, but at the latest after 2 or 3 months it comes back” P17 (male, 40 years)
Medication lead to complications or side effects	“Then I was prescribed tablets […] which caused the worst side effects, so I stopped taking them because otherwise I couldn’t manage with my children and work” P1 (female, 30 years)
Positive experiences with healthcare professionals	“And then I met this […] doctor who told me ‘We can do something for you, why don’t you come and see us', so I thought 'OK, I’ll try it once more', and I did. Because I was told that the medicines are different today. There is new research compared to 30 years ago” P24 (male, 61 years)
Negative experiences with healthcare professionals	“She always just said ‘You can get help at the university hospital, I can’t help you’, […] and when I wanted her to prescribe [calcipotriol and betamethasone foam], she also blocked me and said 'I can't prescribe that for you, I do not know anything about it'” P3 (male, 35 years)
Self-treatment	“And then I took, let’s say, a natural approach and avoided all artificial soaps” P6 (male, 29 years)
Prior treatment experiences of others	“I figured that with the medication, of course, a lot of it would disappear very quickly, because you’ve often heard that these biologics work very well, but it’s very difficult to get them prescribed, so I figured it would help a lot” P14 (male, 32 years)