OBJECTIVE

To describe patients’ experience of long-term (up to 52 weeks) topical treatment of psoriasis vulgaris in everyday clinical practice in the Russian Federation and to evaluate the effect of topical therapy on the duration of the relapse-free period.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 779 patients. Patients were included in the study when they were prescribed topical therapy with a combination of betamethasone and calcipotriol or calcipotriol alone to maintain the relapse-free period immediately after the resolution of a psoriasis exacerbation. The observation was carried out for 52 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the time to the next relapse. Secondary endpoints were overall treatment success rate according to physician opinion (physician static global assessment, PsGA) and according to patient opinion (patient’s global assessment, PaGA), as well as the impact on the patient’s quality of life assessed using the DLQI questionnaire.

RESULTS

The mean time to the next psoriasis relapse in the study was 42.80±14.3 weeks. The mean time to next psoriasis relapse in patients treated with calcipotriol and betamethasone combination therapy (n=724) was 42.89±14.34 weeks vs. 39.52±15.00 weeks in patients treated with calcipotriol alone. At the end of the study, most patients showed an improvement in global physician (PsGA) and patient (PaGA) assessment of psoriasis, as well as an improvement in quality of life (DLQI), compared to baseline. The studied topical therapy was well-tolerated. A total of 5 adverse events was reported.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest an increase in the relapse-free period with the above approach. The above therapy led to improvement of psoriasis symptoms as well as the quality of life of the patients.