Publication:

Efficacy and safety of adalimumab in treating patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis: a retrospective study

Background Psoriasis is a disease of systemic inflammation with multiple organ ramifications. It is a chronic, painful, non-communicable, immune-mediated, genetic disease-causing disfiguration and disability, for which there is no cure and with great negative impact on patients’ quality of life (QoL). Aim and objective was to assess the efficacy and safety of adalimumab (ADA) in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

Methods A hospital based, analytical retrospective observational study was conducted among patients aged 18 years and above, irrespective of gender and who received adalimumab treatment for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and attended the outpatient clinic of dermatology at a tertiary care hospital for a period of 12 months. Efficacy was evaluated in all patients at 4, 12 and at last visit by calculating PASI (psoriasis area and severity index) relative to pre-treatment visit (baseline 0 week) as there was no comparative group. Safety was assessed by recording of side effects if any. Data was entered in MS excel 2019 and statistical analysis was done using SPSS 23 demo version.

Results The mean PASI score at 0 week was 24.4±3.26, this when compared to PASI score at 4 weeks (11.2±4.08), at 12 weeks (3.2±2.40), at 52 weeks (0.5±0.96) had shown an extreme statistically significant difference. Side effects reported were urticaria, diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infections.

Conclusions Adalimumab was very effective for chronic psoriasis, when given at high loading dose followed by maintenance dose every other week with minimal side effects.