INTRODUCTION
Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing, and remitting inflammatory skin disease affecting 7.4 million adults in the United States (US).1 Psoriasis can have devastating effects on numerous aspects of life.2-4 The financial burden in the US is considerable, it costs an estimated $112 billion per year to treat psoriasis.5-7 Although many treatments exist, the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) reports over half of patients in the US are dissatisfied with their psoriasis treatment.6-8
Topical therapies are first-line treatments for mild psoriasis, whereas phototherapy, systemic therapies, or biologic therapies are used to manage moderate to severe psoriasis and residual disease. Topical therapies can be time-consuming, messy, expensive, and requiring different potencies for different body areas. Newer therapies have sought to improve this with the creation of single, fixed combination topicals in different vehicle types that are less messy, more convenient, and cosmetically elegant. Topical drugs with new mechanisms of action are under development.5 Systemic therapies for moderate to severe psoriasis, consisting of 3% or more of the body surface area (BSA), have improved dramatically with the introduction of biologics, making clearing and normalization of quality of life a realistic possibility for many patients.9,10
Despite the introduction of safe and effective novel therapies in treating psoriasis, many people remain untreated or undertreated and unsatisfied, particularly those with moderate or severe psoriasis.6,11,12 To further assess psoriasis treatment needs, we sought to determine what remaining gaps patients with psoriasis perceive.
Topical therapies are first-line treatments for mild psoriasis, whereas phototherapy, systemic therapies, or biologic therapies are used to manage moderate to severe psoriasis and residual disease. Topical therapies can be time-consuming, messy, expensive, and requiring different potencies for different body areas. Newer therapies have sought to improve this with the creation of single, fixed combination topicals in different vehicle types that are less messy, more convenient, and cosmetically elegant. Topical drugs with new mechanisms of action are under development.5 Systemic therapies for moderate to severe psoriasis, consisting of 3% or more of the body surface area (BSA), have improved dramatically with the introduction of biologics, making clearing and normalization of quality of life a realistic possibility for many patients.9,10
Despite the introduction of safe and effective novel therapies in treating psoriasis, many people remain untreated or undertreated and unsatisfied, particularly those with moderate or severe psoriasis.6,11,12 To further assess psoriasis treatment needs, we sought to determine what remaining gaps patients with psoriasis perceive.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Following approval from the Wake Forest University Institutional Review Board (IRB), 1,345 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online crowdsourcing platform that allows participants to find paid tasks relevant to them. Anyone with internet access can sign-up for an MTurk
