Sustained improvement in joint pain and nail symptoms with etanercept therapy in patients with moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis

Background  To determine the prevalence of joint and nail symptoms, impact of these symptoms on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL), and the effects of etanercept on them in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Methods  In CRYSTEL, patients with psoriasis received etanercept continuously (n = 357) or as paused therapy (n = 363) for 54 weeks. In post hoc analyses, baseline characteristics and after-treatment changes were evaluated in patients with baseline joint pain or nail psoriasis, pooling across treatment groups. Assessments of symptom severity and HR-QoL included the Subject Global Assessment question on joint pain, NAPSI, DLQI and EQ-5D. Results  Of 711 patients, 64% reported joint pain and 79% nail psoriasis at baseline. Patients with baseline joint pain or nail psoriasis had significantly worse HR-QoL than unaffected patients. Mean baseline differences between patients with and without joint pain in DLQI (3.3), EQ-5D utility (0.2), and EQ-5D VAS (7.3) were clinically meaningful. In patients with nail psoriasis, a clinically meaningful difference in EQ-5D VAS (5.0) was seen. Etanercept significantly improved symptom severity and HR-QoL. Patients with joint pain had improvements of 47%, 61%, 29%, and 23% in mean joint pain score, DLQI, EQ-5D utility, and EQ-5D VAS, respectively, at Week 54. Patients with nail psoriasis had improvements of 51%, 63%, and 24% in NAPSI, DLQI, and EQ-5D VAS. Conclusion  In this study of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, joint and nail symptoms were prevalent and patients with these symptoms had significantly greater HR-QoL impairment at baseline than unaffected patients. Etanercept provided significant improvement in symptom severity and HR-QoL. Conflict of Interest T. Luger has acted as a paid consultant to and speaker for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. J. Barker has acted as a paid consultant to and speaker for, and has received unrestricted research or education support from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. J. Lambert has acted as a paid consultant to and speaker for Wyeth. S. Yang, D. Robertson, J. Foehl, C. Molta, and R. Boggs are employed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which supported this study financially.