‘As needed’ biologic therapy in psoriasis: mixed-methods study - research summary

Acceptability of ‘as needed’ biologic therapy in psoriasis: insights from a multistakeholder mixed-methods study.

Research published in the British Journal of Dermatology provides an overview of ‘as needed’ biologic therapy and its reception from people with psoriasis and healthcare professionals.

The full paper is available online here and the study is summarised below.

Research Summary:

Psoriasis is a common skin disease that affects up to 2% of adults in the UK and causes red, scaly patches of skin. A new group of injectable medicines (called biologics) are extremely effective at controlling psoriasis. However, continuous use of these medicines can increase the risk of negative side-effects (such as infections).

‘As needed’ biologic therapy is when a person takes their biologic medication at the first sign of their psoriasis symptoms returning, rather than at regular continuous intervals. This approach has the potential to reduce the side effects of taking biologics, while still maintaining good control of psoriasis symptoms.

This approach has not been used in psoriasis yet, and so researchers wanted to know what people with psoriasis and dermatology healthcare professionals thought about this approach. The research team carried out national surveys of people with psoriasis and healthcare professionals to explore their views on ‘as needed’ biologic therapy. Group interviews were also held to understand the positive aspects and potential issues with this approach in more detail.

Overall, research found that an ‘as needed’ approach was viewed as acceptable by people with psoriasis and healthcare professionals. They thought this approach would reduce the negative impacts of treatment and allow patients to have more ownership of their care. Potential issues included the possibility of patients’ psoriasis returning, as well as ensuring that they had access to medication quickly enough when needed.

These findings indicate that ‘as needed’ biologic therapy in psoriasis is acceptable from both a patient and clinician perspective. Further research exploring how effective and acceptable this approach is in practice is needed, to enable the full potential of this approach to be realised.

The infographic overleaf visualises key points and findings from the study.

The full paper is available online at: (https://academic.oup.com/bjd/article/191/2/243/7609806#474823447)