Dupilumab effectiveness and safety in treating moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) have been demonstrated in open-label studies up to 4 years. Evidence about long-term psychological outcome is lacking. This study evaluates the long-term psychological outcome of moderate-to-severe AD patients continuously treated with Dupilumab up to 3 years. A prospective observational real-life study was conducted at an Italian tertiary centre from January 2019 to September 2022. Measures of disease severity and psychological outcomes were assessed at baseline, after 4, 8, 12, 24 and 36 months. A total of 382 moderate-to-severe AD patients were included. After 36 months, EASI-75 and EASI-90 were achieved by 91.8% and 77.2% of participants. Significant improvement (p < 0.001; ω2 = 0.18-0.84) in objective and patient-reported measures of disease severity and in the psychological condition were observed after 4 months of treatment and maintained up to 36 months. Longitudinal analysis of interactions of demographic and clinical features found subgroups of patients who did not reported psychological improvement over the study period notwithstanding the positive clinical response. Long-term improvement in the psychological outcome of moderate-to-severe AD patients continuously treated with Dupilumab is confirmed up to 3 years, supporting its wide use in this population. Between-subject differences in the psychological outcome irrespective of clinical response observed in this study foster the biopsychosocial approach in the clinical management of these patients.
Keywords: Dupilumab; anxiety; atopic dermatitis; depression; patient-reported outcomes; quality of life.
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