New Secrets About Psoriatic Arthritis: Is Combination Therapy as Safe as You Think?

Are you struggling with persistent joint pain and stubborn psoriasis patches that conventional treatments just can’t seem to handle? If the answer is YES, you are not alone! In fact, half of PsA patients still have not achieved complete remission despite trying various treatment approaches.

PSORIATIC ARTHRITIS – A NEW SOLUTION FROM TARGETED COMBINATION THERAPY

Fighting alone is already difficult—so is there a “stronger,” more effective solution to manage this complex disease?

In medicine, the idea of combining drugs with different mechanisms to enhance treatment effectiveness is not new. However, in the past, both patients and doctors were cautious about combination targeted therapy (CTT), fearing that it might increase the risk of severe infections. Some studies in other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, have also reported this concern.

The good news is that a large-scale study was recently conducted to address a crucial question: Is CTT truly safe for adult patients with psoriatic arthritis?

The study, led by Alexander Wu and colleagues, analyzed data from more than 82,000 PsA patients in the United States between 2015 and 2024. The goal was to assess the prevalence of CTT use and, more importantly, the risk of severe or opportunistic infections requiring hospitalization.

Key Findings:

• CTT is not yet widely adopted, with only about 1% of PsA patients in the study using it. This may be due to physician caution or insurance reimbursement issues.
• The most commonly used combination regimens were TNF-α inhibitors with apremilast (34–37%) and IL-17 inhibitors with apremilast (27–29%). Notably, apremilast emerged as a “central player” in combination therapy.
• Most importantly: after adjusting for confounding factors, the study found that patients receiving combination therapy did not have a significantly increased risk of serious or opportunistic infections compared with those on standard therapy. Overall infection rates were low in both groups.

Implications:

This finding suggests that previous concerns about CTT may no longer be major barriers. Combination targeted therapy could become a safe and more effective option, especially for patients who do not achieve satisfactory outcomes with monotherapy.

Although this represents an important step forward, experts emphasize the need for larger-scale studies to confirm these findings and explore additional combination regimens.

Conclusion:

This is an encouraging signal for the management of PsA. Patients can discuss with their doctors the best, most personalized options for their condition. Each scientific discovery marks a milestone, bringing us closer to the goal of living healthier and happier lives.