Background and objectives: This study analyzed the extent to which the recent introduction of more effective treatments has led to an improvement in real-world psoriasis patients.
Patients and methods: Patient characteristics and the first-year treatment effectiveness in biologic-naive patients have been analyzed since 2004 until now, irrespective of treatment switches.
Results: Data from 2,729 patients were eligible for this analysis. The proportion of female patients increased significantly over the years from 29.9% to 36.2% (p < 0.028), while the number of patients with psoriatic arthritis declined from 36.6% to 30.0% (p < 0.001). Moreover, the duration of psoriatic disease and PASI at the start of the treatment significantly decreased. Last observation carrief forward (LOCF) analysis indicated that PASI 90 response increased from 18.9 to 44.6% at 3 months and from 32.9 to 66.8% at 12 months after treatment started. Similary, the PASI ≤ 3 rates increased from 33.2% to 66.0% at 3 months and from 41.9% to 78.9% at 12 months after the treatment started.
Conclusions: The continuous introduction of more efficient biologics has led to significant improvements in patient care and clinical outcomes. Though one out of three to five patients, depending on the endpoint selected, nowadays still does not achieve an entirely satisfactory treatment response (i.e., PASI 90 or PASI ≤ 3).
Keywords: Psoriasis; biologics; psoriasis treatment; psoriatic arthritis.
© 2023 The Authors. Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft.