Background: Little is known about the interaction between dermatologists and their patients in facilitating treatment decisions for psoriasis.
Purpose: Our objective was to determine dermatologists' perceptions of the needs of psoriasis patients in treatment decisions.
Methods: Dermatologists were invited to complete an 18-item online survey on the treatment of psoriasis, including questions on decision-making roles, factors they considered important to patients in treatment decisions, and patients' needs for decision support.
Results: Seventy dermatologists completed the survey (15% response rate). The highest rated factors in decision making were access to physicians for discussion (86%) and information about the risks and benefits (80%); the latter was more frequently reported by those ≥ 50 years (p = .021). Treatment-specific factors of greatest importance were side-effect profile (87%) and cost (80%). Potential hindrances were patient misconceptions about disease, inadequate patient education materials, patient indecision, and inadequate physician time.
Conclusion: Although dermatologists consider accessibility to dermatologists and information on treatment risk and benefits to be important in treatment decision making, they report time with patients and educational materials to be inadequate.
Limitations: The small sample size may limit the generalizability of our findings.