Serious infections among a large cohort of subjects with systemically treated psoriasis.

Background: Biologic therapy is effective for treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis but may be associated with an increased risk for serious infection.
Objective: To estimate the serious infection rate among patients with psoriasis treated with biologic as compared with nonbiologic systemic agents within a community-based health care delivery setting.
Methods: We identified 5889 adult Kaiser Permanente Northern California health plan members with psoriasis who had ever been treated with systemic therapies and calculated the incidence rates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for serious infections over 29,717 person-years of follow-up. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) were calculated using Cox regression.
Results: Adjusting for age, sex, race or ethnicity, and comorbidities revealed a significantly increased risk for overall serious infection among patients treated with biologics as compared with those treated with nonbiologics (aHR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.02-1.68). More specifically, there was a significantly elevated risk for skin and soft tissue infection (aHR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.19-2.56) and meningitis (aHR, 9.22; 95% CI, 1.77-48.10) during periods of active biologic use.
Limitations: Risk associated with individual drugs was not examined.
Conclusion: We found an increased rate of skin and soft tissue infections among patients with psoriasis treated with biologic agents. There also was a signal suggesting increased risk for meningitis. Clinicians should be aware of these potential adverse events when prescribing biologic agents.
(Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)