Vibeke Strand, MD: Comorbidities Make Treating Psoriatic Arthritis Difficult

A wide range of comorbidities present a challenge in treating psoriatic arthritis.

With more than a third of severe psoriatic arthritis patients considered obese, individuals with the disease also have a high rate of cardiovascular disease, depression, and liver disease like nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

NASH might be particularly difficult because there currently is not a way to diagnose the disease without an invasive procedure such as a liver biopsy.

The very few treatments available, which tend to wane in effectiveness over the course of time for individuals, only add to the challenge in treating the life-long disease.

Vibeke Strand, MD, adjunct clinical professor in the Division of Immunology/Rheumatology at Stanford University, explained in an interview with HCPLive® why psoriatic arthritis is so difficult to treat.

However, 1 treatment that has had an impact on patients in recent years is adalimumab, an anti-TNF medication.

In data, which were published as part of the European E-Congress of Rheumatology 2020 (EULAR 2020) meeting, adalimumab was assessed in comparison to placebo in patients with severely active psoriatic arthritis.

Strand, who was an author on the study, said adalimumab is one of the more effective treatments for this disease, but there remains gaps in treatment caused by comorbidities.