Frequent office visits for injections may reduce adalimumab survival rate in patients with psoriasis

Adherence to biological treatment is influenced by drug efficacy, adverse events, and patients’ satisfaction with treatment. Administration intervals and route may also affect treatment persistence (how long patients stay on treatment). Adalimumab is administered subcutaneously every other week, and injections at hospitals are widely used, requiring frequent visits that may be a burden for patients. We retrospectively analyzed 36 consecutive patients treated with adalimumab for moderate to severe psoriasis to determine persistence with the treatment regimen.Patients were enrolled between February 2010 and April 2013 and were followed until August 2013. Patients for whom adalimumab had been initiated in other hospitals and who were subsequently treated in our department were excluded from the study. We collected information on gender, age, disease type, duration of the disease prior to baseline, Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) at baseline, side effects, presence or absence of selfinjection, and comorbidities relevant to psoriasis. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of adherence to adalimumab at the end of the observational period: the retention group and the drop-out group. All patients were initiated with hospital-based