Source: Dermatology News
Tactics for managing patients with atopic dermatitis can go a long way to educate patients, set realistic expectations, and devise strategies for existing therapies, even as clinicians await some promising agents expected on the market soon.
“The good news is this is the Age of Eczema. In the last couple of years we’ve seen an explosion in the literature,” Adam Friedman, MD, of the department of dermatology, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., said at the Orlando Dermatology Aesthetic and Clinical Conference. Some of this research is spurring new therapeutics. a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor.
Crisaborole ointment, 2% (Eucrisa), a phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December 2016 for treating patients aged 2 years and older with mild to moderate AD, for example. It is a novel, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and the first prescription agent approved in the United States for atopic dermatitis in more than 10 years.
Dr. Friedman has no personal experience with crisaborole, which just became available. “But the data look encouraging. From what I’ve seen this may be a nonburning alternative to calcineurin inhibitors. It will be interesting to see how this will fit in our practices.”