Transcript
Announcer:
This is DermConsult on ReachMD. On this episode, we’ll hear from Dr. James Song, who’s a clinical instructor at the University of Washington, as well as the Co-Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical Research at Frontier Dermatology. He’ll be discussing key considerations in monitoring patients with psoriasis. Here’s Dr. Song now.
Dr. Song:
Psoriasis is a long-term chronic disease, so we just can't just think about how that patient is doing today, but also what's going to happen in the future. And of course, we want to make sure that their skin remains under good control, so we want a drug that has good durable response, but also being aware of the comorbidities that can develop years after the psoriasis appears. Specifically with psoriatic arthritis, it could be delayed anywhere from seven to ten years after the skin disease appears. So we want to make sure that we're always screening our patients for psoriatic arthritis because that might change how we treat these patients.
Also, with the higher risk of cardiometabolic disease that we can see with psoriatic patients, making sure that they're seeing their PCPs and getting their sugar, cholesterol, lipid levels, and blood pressure under control just because these patients are at a higher risk of having a heart attack and a stroke.
And then something that doesn't get talked about enough, but I think is important, is the mental health or neuropsychiatric comorbidities associated with psoriasis. We know that our psoriasis patients have a higher risk of anxiety or depression and unfortunately suicidal ideation and behavior. So even though we're not necessarily worried that our medications could impact that, we want to make sure they are being followed and they're being screened for these comorbidities because we have an opportunity to intervene while we still can.
Announcer:
That was Dr. James Song discussing monitoring considerations in psoriasis. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit DermConsult on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!
