Apremilast Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis and Other Chronic Eczematous Dermatoses
July 2017
in “
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
”
Studysummary This study observed that apremilast treatment improved skin lesions and reduced pruritus in patients with chronic, severe atopic dermatitis and one case of hand and foot dermatitis. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
The study from July 2017 evaluated the effectiveness of apremilast, an oral PDE-4 inhibitor, in treating atopic dermatitis and other chronic eczematous dermatoses in five patients with severe, treatment-resistant skin conditions. All patients experienced improvements in symptoms such as erythema, scaling, xerosis, and pruritus within 2-4 weeks of treatment, with two patients achieving over 75% improvement and one reporting 90% clearance of chronic hand and foot dermatitis. The study suggested apremilast's benefits, including rapid onset and no need for lab monitoring, but was limited by the small sample size and lack of objective disease severity and quality of life measurements.