Serious adverse events are more likely in patients older than 65 years undergoing psoriasis therapy, though whether these events are because of the treatment itself or other risk factors remains unclear, according to Dr. Carolina Medina and her associates.
In a review of data from 1,793 psoriasis patients enrolled in a national registry in Spain (10% of whom were older than 65 years), the overall risk of any adverse event was not significantly higher in the older group (drug group adjusted hazard ratio 1.09). However, the risk of serious adverse events was much greater (drug group adjusted HR, 3.2). Biologic exposure decreased the risk of adverse events in both younger and older patients, compared with those receiving classic therapy, even after adjustments for age (HR, 0.7, age adjusted), the researchers noted.
“These results are reassuring, although uncontrolled confounding could not be excluded as an explanation for these findings, and the power of the study to detect differences was low,” they concluded.
Find the full study in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (doi: 10.1111/jdv.12688).