Five recent developments in psoriasis

Research finding that patients with psoriasis have a prevalence of certain comorbidities that contribute to metabolic syndrome was among recent developments reported on Healio.com/Dermatology.

Other developments included findings that tildrakizumab showed efficacy as treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis compared with placebo or Enbrel, and an expert panel’s recommended guidelines for patients with pediatric psoriasis:

Patients with psoriasis experience cardiometabolic comorbidities

Patients with psoriasis have a prevalence of certain comorbidities that contribute to metabolic syndrome, according to published study results in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Researchers used the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan database, which includes claims for commercially insured U.S. patients, to measure the extent of comorbidities in patients with psoriasis. Read more

Anchoring-based intervention increased patient willingness to use biologic injection for psoriasis

Researchers found that the use of anchoring was effective in determining that patients with psoriasis were more willing to consider a once-monthly biologic injection after initially being asked to consider a once-daily injection, according to published study results in JAMA Dermatology.

“Anchoring is the tendency for humans to make judgments relative to the first piece of information presented,” the researchers wrote. “Since psychological anchors can be arbitrary, resetting the anchor may be a potential approach to help patients overcome fear of injection.” Read more

Patients with pediatric psoriasis not at increased risk for cancer

Patients with pediatric psoriasis did not display a significantly increased overall cancer risk when compared with pediatric patients without psoriasis, according to recently published study results in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study by obtaining data from the IMS LifeLink Health Plan Claims Database including pediatric psoriasis cases from Jan. 1, 1998, to Nov. 2, 2007, with data extracted through Jan. 31, 2008, to allow for at least 91 days’ follow-up. Read more

Tildrakizumab shows efficacy in treating plaque psoriasis

Tildrakizumab showed efficacy as treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis compared with placebo or Enbrel, according to results of two phase 3 studies recently published in The Lancet.

Alexa B. Kimball, MD, president and CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues conducted two three-part parallel group, double-blind randomized controlled studies: reSURFACE 1 at sites in Australia, Canada, Japan, the U.K. and U.S., and reSURFACE 2 at sites in Europe, Israel and the U.S. Read more

Screening guidelines for pediatric psoriasis comorbidities recommended

An expert panel recommended guidelines for patients with pediatric psoriasis, including routine screening and identification of certain risk factors for associated comorbidities, according to a consensus statement published in JAMA Dermatology.

Lawrence F. Eichenfield

The panel used PubMed to conduct a literature review for psoriasis and comorbidities to identify 153 manuscripts, including 26 involving pediatric patients, between 1999 and 2015. Quality of evidence was measured by Lawrence F. Eichenfield, MD, chief of pediatric and adolescent dermatology, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, and fellow experts by using the patient-centered Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) method. Read more