The Comparative Efficacy of Traditional Systemic,Biologic,and Combination Therapies in the Treatment of Psoriasis: An Expansion Study

Abstract

Background

There is a lack of comparative effectiveness research, particularly in the clinical setting, guiding psoriasis therapy.

Objective

To compare the efficacies of the traditional systemic, biologic, and combination therapies.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study analyzed psoriasis patient visits to the Tufts Medical Center Department of Dermatology. The outcome measure used was the validated simple measure for assessing psoriasis activity (S-MAPA).

Results

Patients treated with biologic or combination therapies had a significantly larger improvement in S-MAPA than patients treated with a traditional systemic medication at 24 weeks (biologic: 62.69% vs. 36.20%, p=0.021; combination: 83.28% vs. 36.20%, p=0.011). Multivariate analysis demonstrated the superiority of biologics to traditional systemic therapy was independent of patient demographics and comorbidities.

Conclusions

In the clinical setting, the biologic and combination therapies are superior to the traditional systemic therapies in the treatment of psoriasis. Emphasis should be placed on future trials that compare current active therapies.