The Psoriasis Symptom Inventory (PSI) is a patient-reported outcome measure used to assess psoriasis symptoms and indicators. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the PSI’s use in improving patient care in the clinical context. Adults with psoriasis of varying severity were enrolled in eight dermatological clinics across six countries. While waiting for the physician, patients were given an eight-item PSI; the physician also performed a static physician global assessment (sPGA) and measured psoriasis-affected body surface area (BSA) during the same appointment. After each patient visit, physicians answered a brief questionnaire, and after all, patients were visited, they were asked about the PSI. The clinics included 278 patients, with a 7.6 percent psoriasis-affected BSA on average. According to BSA, 47.8 percent of the population had mild psoriasis, 29.1 percent had moderate psoriasis, and 23.0 percent had severe psoriasis. According to sPGA, 18.7 percent of people had clear/almost clear skin, 67.3 percent had mild/moderate skin, and 14.0 percent had severe/very severe skin. The mean PSI total score was 12.2. Physicians spent 4.9 minutes on average (SD) discussing PSI findings with their patients. The following were some of the key benefits of PSI discussions: new information for physicians about symptom location and severity; prompting of quality-of-life discussions; better understanding of patient treatment priorities; changes in treatment regimens to target specific symptoms or areas; and improvement of the patient-physician relationship.The PSI improved patient-physician communication and affected treatment decisions in both treated and untreated patients.
Reference:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40257-019-00458-2
