High blood pressure may increase the risk of psoriasis for women, according to a recent study HealthDay reported.

Researchers found that women with hypertension, or high blood pressure, for more than six years had a 27 percent greater risk for developing psoriasis than women with normal blood pressure. They also discovered that taking blood pressure medications called beta-blockers also raised the risk for the skin condition.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition that causes skin cells to grow too quickly, resulting in thick, white, silvery, or red patches of skin. It affects about 3 percent of the United States population, HealthDay reported.

"We basically found those who have high blood pressure of a certain duration -- more than six years in this study -- have an increased risk of developing psoriasis," study researcher Dr. Abrar Qureshi, professor of dermatology at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, R.I., said in a statement.

For the study, researchers followed nearly 78,000 women enrolled in the U.S. Nurses' Health Study from 1996 to 2008. They found 843 cases of psoriasis diagnosed during that time.

They found that women who used beta-blockers for six years or more has almost a 40 percent increased risk of psoriasis compared to women who never used the drug. Researchers said they believe the beta-blockers may have a secondary effect on the immune system that gives rise to psoriasis.

They said the study proved an association between high blood pressure, medication and psoriasis, but not a cause-and-effect.

"We can't say one [definitely] led to the other,"Qureshi said.

He added that another limitation of the study is that the women involved were all health care professionals who might lead a healthier lifestyle than an average person. This means their findings may not apply to the United States population.

Qureshi said more research is needed to understand the association.

The findings were recently published in JAMA Dermatology.