Pattern of drug use in patients with psoriatic arthritis in Italy: study in a real-world setting

Background: The aim of this study is to assess treatment patterns and pharmaco-utilization in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in Italy. Methods: A retrospective analysis using administrative databases of six Local Health Units was performed. All adult patients with PsA diagnosis and >= 1 prescription for biologic/targeted-synthetic (b/ts) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) from January 2010 to March 2017 were included. The date of first b/tsDMARD prescription was defined index-date. Follow-up lasted 1-year post index-date. Patients without b/tsDMARDs prescription pre index-date were defined bionaive. Results: Of the 1,056 patients included, 33% received adalimumab, 30% etanercept, 10% golimumab, 9% secukinumab, 7% infliximab, 6% ustekinumab, 4% certolizumab, and 1% apremilast. During follow-up, persistence with b/tsDMARDs was observed in 79.8% of patients, 10.8% switched therapies, dose change occurred in 15.8% of patients, 47.4% received an add-on. Among bionaive patients (n = 591), 67.0% were persistent with b/tsDMARDs, 10.1% switched therapy, 14.5% required a dose change and 45.8% an add-on. Discontinuation was observed in 10.6% of total PsA population and in 24.8% of bionaive patients. Conclusion: This analysis provided insights on drug utilization patterns for PsA in an Italian real-world setting. Our results show that treatment regimen changes occur in a high proportion of PsA patients.