Biological therapies for psoriasis do not increase serious infection risk
Published on 23 January 2018
doi: 10.3310/signal-000536
People with psoriasis who take an immune-modulating treatment are no more likely to get serious infections than people taking standard therapies.
There are fears that these biological therapies raise the risk of serious infections and this has discouraged their use. They are recommended by NICE for moderate to severe psoriasis. Previous studies have reached conflicting conclusions, making it hard to advise on the true risk.
This study used a large database of people with psoriasis from the UK and Ireland. It compared serious infection risk of the biological therapies (etanercept, adalimumab or ustekinumab) with non-biological therapies, after accounting for factors such as other illnesses. It found none of the biological therapies studied had a higher risk of infection compared to non-biological therapies or compared to each other.
The results should encourage adherence to the recent British Association of Dermatology guideline on the use of biologic therapies in psoriasis.
