Burden of Atopic Dermatitis

Linda Stein Gold, MD: Raj, I'm going to come to you because this disease has such a major impact not only on the patients but also on the entire family unit. Can you talk a little bit about just the general burden of AD?

Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD: Sure thing. Eric and Ally alluded to this beautifully about how the patient burden, and even caregiver burden of atopic dermatitis is perhaps the most defining characteristic of the disease itself. It occupies a number of different clinical domains. We've heard a little bit about the skin lesions themselves. Obviously, those can be irritating and bother patients. They don't like how they look. Medically speaking, they can be uncomfortable. We have talked a bit about symptomatic burden. Of course, there's itch, but there are other symptoms that our patient's experience. There's skin pain, sleep issues, and mental health issues as well including everything from anxiety, depression, ADHD, and even increases in suicidality in some reports, but the burden even extends beyond that. There are different heterogeneous types. Of course, some people have different types of diseases during different parts of the year. There is a comorbid burden. We know that there are different types of both atopic and non-atopic comorbidities that our patients experience. There is burden related to treatment and some patients need a lot of treatments whereas some patients need less treatment. Some patients just have adverse outcomes from treatments as well, and then there's everything related to work productivity, going to school, leisure activity, and actually accomplishing your day-to-day work. All of this falls under the umbrella of the different types of impacts that atopic dermatitis can have across the entire family unit.

Linda Stein Gold, MD: Yeah, it's a heavy burden and it just impacts everybody in the household.

Transcript Edited for Clarity