Trends in prescriptions of oral medications for psoriasis: A single-center retrospective study

The systemic treatment of psoriasis has changed markedly with the introduction of many novel drugs. However, clinicians have had limited opportunities to evaluate these new therapies. One of the new drugs, apremilast (a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor), was approved in 2017 in Japan. We previously reported oral treatment for psoriasis before the introduction of apremilast. In this study, we investigated the impact of apremilast on oral medication for psoriasis by comparing data obtained before and after apremilast became available. This retrospective study enrolled patients who visited the Department of Dermatology, Fukuoka University Hospital, who were diagnosed with psoriasis and treated with anti-psoriatic oral medications. Patients were divided into two groups: Group 1, who first visited our clinic between January 2010 and March 2016; and Group 2, who first visited our clinic between April 2016 and March 2022. The information collected included patient demographics, drug use (apremilast, cyclosporine, methotrexate, and etretinate), and treatment duration. In Group 1 (n = 149 patients), cyclosporine, methotrexate, and etretinate were prescribed to 59.1%, 16.6%, and 24.3% of the patients, respectively. In Group 2 (n = 129 patients), apremilast was prescribed to 52.5% of patients, while the number of prescriptions for cyclosporine and etretinate had decreased to 17.1% and 8.3%, respectively. The number of methotrexate prescriptions did not change significantly. Apremilast, methotrexate, and etretinate had longer continuation rates than cyclosporine in Group 2. In conclusion, apremilast replaced cyclosporine and etretinate mainly because of its better safety profile, whereas methotrexate remained in constant demand in both eras. New oral treatments for psoriasis, such as tyrosine kinase-2 inhibitors, are now in the pipeline, and our data will serve as a control for oral anti-psoriatic medicine before the coming era.