Patient Diagnosis and Early Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis

Raj J. Chovatiya, MD, PhD: This question is for both of you. Do you recall, along the way, anything that worked, stuff that totally didn’t work? Do you remember recommendations that ended up taking up a lot of time and not being all that helpful? There must have been a huge impact on trying all these different things throughout your life.

Taylor Capps:I tried these creams. They worked to an extent, but never to the point that atopic dermatitis was completely gone. I’d use them for a few weeks, and then it would be back. I’d constantly apply these creams. I’d get relief from things like an oatmeal bath, but it wasn’t until I realized that I had food allergies that were causing a lot of that. My mom can speak to that a bit better, but at 19 years old, I found out I was allergic to peanuts. She constantly was asking if we could do food testing to see if there’s something she’s allergic to. I started to get some relief by removing the items I was allergic to, especially in my mouth and on my face. I saw a bit of relief, but it was constantly ongoing. The thing that’s given me completely clear skin free of any breakouts for the last year is when I was able to get on dupilumab [Dupixent].

Raj J. Chovatiya, MD, PhD: You highlighted a couple of interesting points. I’ll turn this over to Tina first, and then Taylor can comment. You talked a bit about food allergies. We’ll talk a bit about the overall burden of atopic dermatitis. We know that there are a lot of other diseases that people think about in the context of atopic dermatitis and eczema, things like asthma, obviously food allergies, seasonal allergies. Do you recall some of the other medical conditions that Taylor was dealing with that, looking back, might have been related to what was going on?

Tina Capps: As a younger child, she’d always have a clear nasal drip. We’d discuss that as far as allergies. At age 7 she would constantly complain about stomachaches, so we went to a pediatric gastroenterologist. At that point they said they couldn’t see anything wrong. They diagnosed her with an anxious stomach. I kept saying she had a happy childhood. I couldn’t figure out why there was anxiety there. I asked if there could be food allergies, often wondered about maybe some lactose intolerance—because she would eat dairy and then have stomachaches—but there was a lot of pushback. I could never get a doctor to agree to test her at a young age because they said children’s allergies often change with food. As she said, when she was 19 years old we had an allergist agree to get in there to do the testing. There were a lot of things that could have made her life a lot better.

Transcript Edited for Clarity