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Treatment of Moderate to Severe Pediatric Psoriasis: A Retrospective Case Series
Author(s) -
Klufas Daniel M.,
Wald Jenna M.,
Strober Bruce E.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
pediatric dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1525-1470
pISSN - 0736-8046
DOI - 10.1111/pde.12782
Subject(s) - medicine , psoriasis , adverse effect , retrospective cohort study , population , sample size determination , referral , disease , severity of illness , pediatrics , dermatology , statistics , mathematics , environmental health , family medicine
Background Psoriasis has an estimated prevalence of 0.5% to 2.0% in children. There is a paucity of data regarding the management and safety of treatments currently available for children with moderate to severe psoriasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment response and safety of systemic therapies used to manage moderate to severe pediatric psoriasis in a single referral center. Despite a small sample size, it was hypothesized that multiple therapeutics used for adult psoriasis would have a similar side‐effect profile and positive disease response when used in a pediatric population. Methods A retrospective case series evaluated 51 children with moderate to severe psoriasis treated with systemic therapies for adverse event occurrence and for disease response using a 5‐point Physician Global Assessment scale. Results Fifty‐one patients, some of whom used multiple treatment options, produced 80 treatment data points. Adverse events were reported in 29 of these 80 treatments, with most being minor, subjective side effects. Overall, the most commonly reported side effect was fatigue, which was reported in 7.5% of treatments. Because of the small sample size, the data collected are limited and may not represent a comprehensive safety profile, nor do they allow comparison of efficacy between therapies. This case series found that biologic and immunomodulating therapies provide well‐tolerated treatments with positive disease response for moderate to severe pediatric psoriasis. Conclusion Although sample size and study design limit the data from this study, the study provides some guidance where little exists and helps to support the use of these treatments in this setting.