Psoriasis patients' willingness to accept side-effect risks for improved treatment efficacy.

BACKGROUND

Previous studies suggest that efficacy is more important than side-effect risks to psoriasis patients. However, those studies did not consider potentially fatal risks of biologic treatments.

OBJECTIVE

To quantify the risks patients are willing to accept for improvements in psoriasis symptoms.

METHODS

Adults with a self-reported physician diagnosis of psoriasis were recruited through the National Psoriasis Foundation. Using a discrete-choice experiment, patients completed a series of nine choice questions, each including a pair of hypothetical treatments. Treatments were defined by severity of plaques, body surface area (BSA), and 10-year risks of tuberculosis, serious infection and lymphoma.

RESULTS

For complete clearance of 25% BSA with mild plaques, respondents (n = 1608) were willing to accept a 20% (95% confidence interval: 9-26%) risk of serious infection, 10% (5-15%) risk of tuberculosis and 2% (1-3%) risk of lymphoma. For complete clearance of 25% BSA with severe plaques, respondents were willing to accept a 54% (48-62%) risk of serious infection, 36% (28-49%) risk of tuberculosis and 8% (7-9%) risk of lymphoma.

LIMITATIONS: Respondents were asked to evaluate hypothetical scenarios. Actual treatment choices may differ.

CONCLUSION

Respondents were willing to accept risks above likely clinical exposures for improvements in psoriasis symptoms. Individual risk tolerances may vary.