Dermatologists' Perspectives on Defining Moderate Psoriasis: The Canadian Moderate Psoriasis Survey

Psoriasis is commonly classified as either mild or moderate to severe, without specific parameters to differentiate moderate versus severe disease. This may lead to patients with moderate psoriasis being underrecognized and undertreated.

An online survey was conducted to assess Canadian dermatologists’ perspectives on the definition and treatment of psoriasis.

Dermatologists included in the survey were regional and national leaders with expertise in psoriasis. Questions were developed based on feedback from a steering committee of Canadian dermatologists.

Of 88 dermatologists contacted, 69 responded; 42.0% were in practice for >20 years. Most dermatologists reported using the percentage of psoriasis-affected body surface area (BSA) to describe disease severity (90.8% for moderate and 87.5% for severe psoriasis). The lower and upper median cutoffs for moderate psoriasis were reported as 5.0% and 10.0% for BSA and 7.0 and 11.5 for the Dermatology Life Quality Index. Most dermatologists also consider psoriasis location (eg, palms, scalp, genital area, face) as an important indicator of disease severity. The majority of Canadian dermatologists (87.5%) identified access to treatment as one of the biggest challenges for patients with moderate psoriasis. Most dermatologists estimated that ≤40% of their patients with moderate plaque psoriasis were being treated with traditional oral systemics, targeted oral systemics, or biologics.

This is the first survey of Canadian dermatologists on moderate psoriasis. Efforts are needed to implement a clinically useful definition of moderate plaque psoriasis to improve patient care and to raise awareness of the definition among regulatory agencies and reimbursement authorities. J Drugs Dermatol. 2021;20(2):126-132. doi:10.36849/JDD.5531.