Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2025 Jul 7. doi: 10.1007/s13555-025-01468-1. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic burden (TB) has been proposed as a potential predictor of treatment outcomes in both dermatological and non-dermatological diseases. This study aims to introduce the concept in the context of alopecia areata (AA) and assess its potential value in supporting therapeutic decision-making in clinical practice.
METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted including patients with AA who started treatment with baricitinib between January 2022 and January 2025 at a third-level hospital center. The main variable was TB, defined as the cumulative sum of previous systemic treatment cycles. An analysis was performed on whether socio-demographic or clinical factors were associated with TB.
RESULTS: Forty-four patients with AA treated with baricitinib were included. Most were women (65.90%) with a mean age of 37.70 (16.10) years. The predominant type of AA was multi-plaque (65.90%) and approximately one third (34.10%) had total/universal forms of the disease. Lower TB was statistically significantly associated with a greater reduction in Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) scores during the first 12 months of barictinib treatment compared with those patients with high TB (p < 0.05). This association was observed independently of all other known progression factors (duration of AA, baseline SALT, total/universal AA, female sex) (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: We present the concept of AA-adapted TB as a useful tool for categorizing patients with AA and contributing to therapeutic decision-making. Patients with AA with low TB showed a greater response to baricitinib treatment than patients who had received a greater number of systemic treatments previously.
PMID:40622665 | DOI:10.1007/s13555-025-01468-1
