Patient-relevant treatment goals in psoriasis

Patient-oriented care requires therapeutic decisions to agree with the patients’ treatment needs and goals. This study addressed the following questions: What is important to psoriasis patients starting systemic treatment? How stable are these preferences within the first year of treatment? Are treatment goals associated with age, gender, or treatment success? The importance of treatment goals was assessed for patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis in the German Psoriasis Registry (PsoBest) at baseline (onset of a systemic treatment; n = 3066) and at a 1-year follow-up (n = 1444) using the Patient Benefit Index (PBI). Treatment success was measured with PBI global score and Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI). Patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis pursued a wide range of different goals. The most general treatment goals were rated most relevant, including skin healing and quick skin improvement (94.8/94.5 % “quite” or “very” important), confidence in the therapy (93.0 %), control over the disease (92.3 %), and a clear diagnosis and therapy (89.6 %). Further important goals related to not being in fear of the disease getting worse (84.8 %), reduction in itching (83.9 %), burning (70.6 %), and pain (60.6 %) as well as attaining a normal everyday life (78.4 %) and low treatment burden (64.2–77.9 %). Goals were mostly not associated with sex and gender. Goal importance slightly increased with treatment success. In a substantial proportion of patients (30.3–54.7 %) goal importance changed within 1 year after onset of systemic treatment. We conclude that treatment goal importance should be assessed in clinical practice on a regular basis.