OBJECTIVES Psoriatic Arthritis (PSO) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the skin and joints with a significant impact on quality of life. The prevalence of PSO has been estimated to be among 0.9%–8.5% worldwide. On the other hand,the introduction biologics for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, have increased the economic burden of these disease. We aimed to compare medication resource utilization and costs in patients with Psoriatic Arthritis.

METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using our patient registry. We followed patients under T2T standards and a multidisciplinary approach. Patients entered into a multidisciplinary program of care with periodic consultations. We describe demographic characteristics and disease activity according to DAS28. Descriptive epidemiology was done, we calculated means, and standard deviations for continuous variables and categorical variables were presented as rates. We calculated the costs for therapy, these are presented in US dollars at the official average rate of exchange for 2018.

RESULTS We included 219 patients, 55% were female and 45% were male. Mean age was 56 years ± 13.05. Mean DAS28 was 2.43 ± 0.84. Regarding pharmacological therapy 50% of patients were treated with Biological DMARDs, 40% with conventional DMARDs and 10% were receiving other medications such as pain medications, calcium, vitamins, dermatologic compounds among others. When we calculated the average costs for biological therapy they were $9.906 USD per patient/year, for the conventional therapy $358 USD per patient/year and for other medications $200 USD per patient/year.

CONCLUSIONS The consumption of resources in PSO are mostly related to biological therapies. Further investigation should be focused on prescription scheme and economic burden in order to find strategies and treatment options that optimize healthcare resources and potentiate services for patients.