Reduction in pain scores and improvement in depressive symptoms in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa treated with adalimumab in a phase 2, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, recurrent, inflammatory skin disease with frequent comorbidities of painand depression. Adalimumab treatment for 16 weeks improved HS lesions significantly versus placebo (NCT00918255).Objective: The relationship between pain and depressive symptoms and the effects of adalimumab on each was examined in this post hoc analysis.Methods: Patients with moderate to severe HS (N=154) were randomized 1:1:1 to adalimumab 40 mg weekly (ew), adalimumab 40 mg every other week (eow), or placebo. Skin pain was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS; 0–100 mm). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; score ≥10 indicative of depression).Results: At baseline, overall mean±SD pain VAS was 54.3±26.5 mm and 41.8% of patients had PHQ-9 scores ≥10. At baseline, VAS pain scores (mean±SD) were significantly higher (P