Top Ten Psoriatic Arthritis Research Priorities Announced

The 'Top Ten' list has been agreed upon by patients, carers and clinicians, for the Psoriatic Arthritis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP).

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We are delighted to reveal the Top Ten Psoriatic Arthritis Research Priorities, agreed upon by people living with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), carers and healthcare professionals. This 'Top Ten' list was reached by agreement in a final prioritisation workshop and marks the culmination of the psoriatic arthritis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP). Research funders will consider the Top Ten list when planning future psoriatic arthritis research. They will use these questions to focus on areas that matter most to the people in the UK living with the condition and those involved in its care and treatment.

The project was funded by the British Psoriatic Arthritis Consortium (Brit-PACT) and followed the James Lind Alliance's Priority Setting Partnership method. It began with an open call for psoriatic arthritis stakeholders to submit the questions they wanted to answer about the condition and its treatments. Nearly one thousand questions were received from people living with the condition, their families, GPs, Rheumatologists, Allied Health Professionals, Nurses and others. These questions were refined through a rigorous and collaborative process, including the second round of voting and a final workshop day to agree on the 'Top Ten'.

The Top Ten Psoriatic Arthritis Research Priorities are:

1. What is the best strategy for managing patients with psoriatic arthritis, including non-drug and drug treatments?
   
2. What factors affect how psoriatic arthritis will progress, the likely severity of the disease in an individual and whether it will go into remission?
   
3. Can tests be developed to predict whether a person has or will develop psoriatic arthritis?
   
4. Is a person with psoriatic arthritis at risk of developing other health conditions? If so, which ones? Why?
   
5. Does treating psoriatic arthritis early (or proactively) reduce the severity of the disease and/or make it more likely to go into remission?
   
6. What triggers acute exacerbations and flares of psoriatic arthritis symptoms?
   
7. What is the best way to measure outcomes of treatment in psoriatic arthritis?
   
8. What are the long-term risks and benefits of medications used for psoriatic arthritis?
   
9. Why do treatments stop working well against psoriatic arthritis, and when they lose effectiveness, what's the best way to regain control of psoriatic arthritis?
   
10. What treatments present the most benefit (considering efficacy, tolerability and safety) for the different body tissues involved in psoriatic arthritis, for example, joints, tendons, spine, skin and nails?
    

Professor Laura Coates, Lead for the psoriatic arthritis PSP and Brit-PACT chair, comments, "Like all James Lind PSPs, this process in PsA was led by a strong steering committee representing both people with PsA and health-care professionals in the field. The input of so many people living with PsA, their families, and a wide variety of health care professionals has allowed us to identify key unmet needs in PsA and prioritise them to support future research. We are indebted to all of our partners but particularly the James Lind Alliance, British Society of Rheumatology (BSR), Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Alliance (PAPAA) and Psoriasis Association who offered substantial support throughout the process. We hope that this Top 10 will guide future research in the field to maximise benefit for people with the condition."