were positive, 16.2% were neutral, and 15.8% were negative. Within the general theme, 41.5% of posts were positive, 47.7% were neutral, and 10% were negative. Compared to the general posts, the efficacy posts had a significantly higher mean sentiment score (mean sentiment score: 0.52 [0.45-0.59] vs 0.31 [0.21-0.40], P<0.001). However, engagement did not significantly differ between engagement and general groups (mean engagement score: 7.38 [5.56-9.19] vs 7.24 [5.42-9.04], P=0.461). The sentiment and engagement scores for each SOT are depicted in Table 3.
Among the two first order themes of general and efficacy, the most prevalent SOT was that biologics did improve symptoms (36.6% of posts). The next most common theme was the time it takes to see results (13.4%), with some users reporting immediate results and others reassuring that it can take weeks to months for the effects to show. Another category of users expressed hopefulness that biologic medication would help with their symptoms (7.1%) Other common topics included having to switch biologics (10.5%) and general inquiries of advice or experiences (10.2%). Approximately 5.7% of posts described that symptoms had not improved or worsened on biologics, while another 4.9% reported that the biologics stopped working altogether. Some users argued against the use of biologics, claiming that they only mask the problem rather than treating the underlying cause (1%) (Table 2).
DISCUSSION
This study aims to understand the online perceptions of biologics within the psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis communities, specifically on Reddit. The scope of this paper focuses on posts pertaining to general perceptions of biologics or biologic efficacy. Previous studies have shown that psoriasis patients may have greater satisfaction with biologics than with other treatment modalities.8 This matches the majority of sentiment found on Reddit, suggesting that it may be beneficial
