Dr Andy Blauvelt Recommends New Novel AD Treatments

Andy Blauvelt, MD, MBA, president of Oregon Medical Research Center, recommends that patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) ask their dermatologists about new topical therapies instead of using topical steroids.

Transcript

What advice do you have for patients with atopic dermatitis who are seeking new treatment options or struggling to manage their symptoms?

That's a really, really important question because, unfortunately, what I see among a lot of dermatologists, and what I hear when I see eczema patients coming into my office for clinical trials, is that many of them have only been offered topical steroids for years and years and years. I referred to that earlier when I said a "serial topical prescriber" over and over and over again, so the patients think that there's nothing else.

My advice to patients is to know that there are a number of great treatments available out there—not only systemic treatments as I discussed (such as) oral JAK inhibitors and biologics, but a number of new novel topical therapies. Not just topical ruxolitinib, but we're going to see topical tapinarof and topical roflumilast approved for atopic dermatitis with nonsteroidal topical options that work terrifically.

My advice to patients is push your dermatologist. Push them away from topical steroids, which I think is actually a horrible treatment for long-term management of AD. I think it's fine for short-term knockout of the disease, but for long-term management of a chronic disease, I think topical steroids are a poor choice, and yet you'II see that over and over again in practice, and patients tell you over and over again.

So, get out of the topical steroid rut. Ask your doctors about the novel new treatments, many of which are going to be better options than that topical steroid route that patients have done for so many years.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.