REAL-WORLD PsoBest data show apremilast improved psoriasis severity, involvement, and quality of life over 12 months in usual care.
Who Received Apremilast in PsoBest
Long-term evidence from routine practice can help clinicians understand which patients are most likely to be treated with oral targeted therapies and what outcomes may follow. Investigators analyzed observational data from the German national psoriasis registry PsoBest, which tracks effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of systemic therapies for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
Between January 2015 and June 2020, 595 registry patients were exposed to apremilast, including 417 treated with apremilast monotherapy. Compared with patients receiving other nonbiologic systemic agents or biologics, those taking apremilast were older on average and had higher proportions of comorbidities, including cardiovascular and metabolic disease. This real-world profile reflects prescribing patterns in which clinicians may favor apremilast for patients with more complex medical histories.
Apremilast Treatment Improved Patient-Reported Outcomes
Clinical and patient-reported outcomes were assessed at 3, 6, and 12 months after starting apremilast monotherapy. Across follow-up visits, apremilast treatment was associated with improvements in patient-centered measures and disease severity. Dermatology Life Quality Index scores improved over time, alongside gains in patient-defined treatment benefit measured by the Patient Benefit Index.
Skin outcomes also moved in a favorable direction, with reductions reported for body surface area involvement and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index values across the same timepoints. Together, these findings suggest that apremilast may support both symptom improvement and day-to-day functioning for patients receiving care outside a controlled trial setting.
Safety Signals in Routine Practice
Safety reporting included adverse events across the exposure period. The most common nonserious adverse events were drug ineffectiveness (14.1%), diarrhea (9.4%), nausea (7.1%), and headache (6.1%). When incidence rates were evaluated, infections and infestations were the most frequent nonserious events of special interest (8.03 per 100 patient-years), while malignant or unspecified tumors were the most common serious events of special interest (2.50 per 100 patient-years). Overall, the registry safety findings were consistent with the established safety profile of apremilast in routine care.
Reference: Augustin M et al. Outcomes in Patients with Psoriasis Following Apremilast Treatment: Results from the German Psoriasis Registry PsoBest. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2026; DOI: 10.1007/s13555-025-01631-8.
