The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of biologic medicines and conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic medications (csDMARDs) on the psychological state of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who were in remission or had low disease activity. This is a case-control study of PsA patients in remission or with low disease activity who were treated between 2015 and 2017 in a single-center combined rheumatologic-dermatologic clinic. Patients were divided into two groups based on their treatment: (1) biologic medicines and (2) csDMARDs. The disease activity score-28 was used to assess the disease activity of people with psoriatic arthritis. Patient health questionnaires (PHQ) were used to assess anxiety, somatization, and depression: generalised anxiety disorder-7, PHQ-15, and PHQ-9, respectively. The health assessment questionnaire disability index was used to measure disability (HAQ-DI). Thirty PsA patients on biologic therapy (BT) and fourteen PsA patients on csDMARDs were included in the study. There were no significant variations in illness duration of treatment duration between the two groups. The disease activity score-28 in the BT group was considerably lower than in the csDMARDs group. The non-BT group showed a non-significant tendency toward higher scores on psychological surveys. In all groups, there were moderate to high correlations between all mental questions and the HAQ-DI. Patients with mental disorders performed significantly worse on the HAQ-DI than patients without physiological comorbidities in both groups.
Tight disease management with BT in PsA patients may enhance psychosocial outcomes in addition to alleviating clinical symptoms.
