Disease burden, symptoms, and use of analgesics in patients with psoriasis with or without psoriatic arthritis: A cross-sectional study.

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 < .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.