Home-Based Phototherapy as Effective as Office-Based for Psoriasis

MONDAY, Sept. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For plaque or guttate psoriasis, home-based narrowband ultraviolet B phototherapy is as effective as office-based phototherapy, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Dermatology to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, held from Sept. 25 to 28 in Amsterdam.

Joel M. Gelfand, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted an open-label, parallel-group, noninferiority randomized clinical trial involving participants aged 12 years or older with plaque or guttate psoriasis who were candidates for home- and office-based phototherapy.

Overall, 393 participants received home-based phototherapy and 390 received office-based phototherapy. Ninety-three of the patients (11.9 percent) were receiving systemic treatment. The researchers found that the mean Physician Global Assessment (PGA) was 2.7 and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was 12.2 at baseline. At week 12, 32.8 and 25.6 percent, respectively, of those receiving home-based phototherapy and office-based phototherapy achieved clear/almost clear skin, and 52.4 and 33.6 percent, respectively, achieved a DLQI of 5 or lower. In the overall population and across all skin phototypes, home-based phototherapy was noninferior to office-based phototherapy for PGA and DLQI. Compared with office-based phototherapy, home-based phototherapy was associated with better treatment adherence (51.4 versus 15.9 percent of patients), a lower burden of indirect cost to patients and more episodes of persistent erythema (5.9 versus 1.2 percent of treatments).

"Efforts should be made to make these safe, effective, and relatively inexpensive treatment options more available to patients in the modern era of psoriasis therapeutics," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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