Key messages
- I pazienti con psoriasi, specialmente quelli con artropatia psoriasica, hanno mostrato un maggior uso di farmaci analgesici rispetto alla popolazione generale.
- Tale dato sembra essere dovuto all’aumentato dolore articolare.
Abstract
Background
Patients with psoriasis have an impaired quality of life and higher use of analgesics than the general population. Whether such use is due to skin pain or a consequence of joint pain resulting from psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is not clear.
Objectives
To assess symptoms, disease burden, and use of analgesics in patients with psoriasis with and without PsA.
Method
Symptoms, general health (EurQol 5-dimension and 5-levels), and use of analgesics were assessed in patients with psoriasis and the general population from the Danish Skin Cohort.
Results
We included 4016 patients with psoriasis (847 with concomitant PsA) and 3490 reference individuals. For patients with psoriasis having PsA, itch, skin pain, and/or joint pain was associated with worse general health. Use of opioids within 12 months was observed among 9.0% of the general population, 14.2% of patients with psoriasis without PsA, and 22.7% of patients with concomitant PsA. Of the symptoms, only joint pain was associated with use of analgesics (odds ratio, 3.72 (2.69-5.14); p <0.0001).
Limitations
Cross-sectional design.
Conclusion
Patients with psoriasis (especially concomitant PsA) have a higher use of analgesics compared with the general population, which appears to be a result of increased joint pain.
Keywords
analgesics; itch; opioids; pain; patient-reported outcomes; psoriasis; psoriatic arthritis; quality of life.