WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis, adherence to topical treatment is low, but an internet-based reporting intervention can improve adherence, according to a study published online Sept. 24 in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Hossein Alinia, from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and colleagues examined how well medication is used in long-term topical treatment of psoriasis in an investigator-blinded prospective study involving 40 patients with mild-to-moderate psoriasis treated with topical fluocinonide over 12 months. Participants were randomized to standard-of-care or an internet-based reporting group in a 1:1 ratio. Medication Event Monitoring System caps were used to measure adherence.
The researchers found that 50 percent of participants discontinued treatment. The intervention group had greater adherence than the standard-of-care group (50 versus 35 percent; P = 0.08). Compared with the standard-of-care group, there was more improvement in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index at month one (1.61 versus 0.12; P = 0.003), month three (2.50 versus 0.79; P = 0.025), and month 12 (3.32 versus 0.34; P = 0.038).
"Adherence to topical treatment is low in short term and decreased further in the long term, a considerable challenge for dermatologists to address," the authors write. "A reporting intervention may [be] one of the ways we can improve our patients' treatment outcomes."
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Galderma, which partially funded the research.
Abstract
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