Advances in Psoriasis and Atopic Dermatitis Comorbidities and Therapy

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What are some prominent psoriasis comorbidities that were discussed at AAD 2018?

Patients with psoriasis are more likely to have other conditions such as depression, anxiety, suicidal risk. They are also at higher risk for other things such as diabetes, hypertension, higher cholesterol levels. They’re also at higher risk for having a heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death. So having psoriasis is more than just a skin disease.

What are some atopic dermatitis comorbidities that were discussed at AAD 2018?

Again, these patients tend to be scratching a lot all the time, because they’re very itchy. Atopic dermatitis, it tends to be more of an itchy condition compared to those with psoriasis. So these patients may be scratching a lot. So that means they can’t sleep that well at night. So they may have a lot of disturbances in sleep, disturbances at work and at home.

A lot of these patients may be children, so they’re going to have a hard time learning at school as well. They may also have other things as well, such as maybe, not as high as psoriasis, but also other things like a higher risk of diabetes and high blood pressure also.

What’s a tip for increasing compliance with atopic dermatitis treatments?

We had Dr. Eric Simpson talk about the therapies in atopic dermatitis. So he said something interesting. And he said that when he starts patients on topical therapy, he really just starts them on one application a day of the creams.

Typically speaking, we usually say, oh, use it twice a day. But he actually says it works just as well if you use it once a day. And actually, the compliance would be much better if they use it as once a day.

So then he moved on to data talking about dupilumab. It’s our new biologic for atopic dermatitis — very effective. It was approved about a year ago now. So that’s in a dose every two weeks. And it’s very effective for people with severe atopic dermatitis.

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