LAS VEGAS – Physicians often fail to predict the impact of disease on quality of life in their psoriasis patients, which can help guide treatment, Joel Gelfand, MD, said in a video interview at Skin Disease Education Foundation’s annual Las Vegas dermatology seminar.
“This is true across all medical conditions,” said Dr. Gelfand, professor of dermatology, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For example, some patients with psoriasis may have extensive disease, but it doesn’t bother them, and therefore they may need less treatment, he pointed out.
In his practice, patients with psoriasis are asked to rate physical symptoms (including flaking and itching) and emotional symptoms (including anxiety and depression) related to their disease on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the worst. “The higher those scores are, the more aggressive I’ll be in treating them,” he said. Patient scores can be tracked over time, to review progress with their chosen treatment, he noted.
Dr. Gelfand disclosed relationships with multiple companies including AbbVie, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Celgene, Merck, Sanofi, Pfizer, and Valeant.
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