Psoriasis therapy in real life: the need for registries.

The introduction of new therapeutic options for the management of psoriasis is a challenge for the dermatology community, and new tools are needed to face this challenge. This article argues for the establishment of profession-based registries to collect solid, long-term data on the safety and effectiveness of different psoriasis treatment regimens. Managed by health care professionals, registries will be most successful if they enroll patients based on indications for treatment rather than on drugs given. This protects the evaluation process from commercial influences and allows a fair comparison of old- versus new-generation psoriasis treatments. In contrast to the patients in a registry who receive care in the natural clinical setting, subjects in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are selected according to study criteria and may therefore not reflect the experience of patients in clinical practice. It is possible that particular risks and opportunities in the real patient population may therefore go undetected in RCTs. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.