Psoriasis May Be Associated With Greater Treatment Burden in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and preexisting psoriasis may require more intensive treatment and experience a more aggressive disease course than patients with IBD alone, according to findings from a retrospective cohort study conducted at 2 academic centers in South Korea.
Psoriasis and IBD share genetic and immunologic pathways, but the clinical impact of concomitant psoriasis on IBD outcomes has remained unclear. To investigate this relationship, researchers compared 25 patients with IBD and psoriasis diagnosed before IBD onset with 50 matched patients with IBD alone.
The primary outcomes were use of biologic therapies and immunomodulators, while secondary outcomes included IBD-related surgery and emergency department visits. Time-to-event analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier methods.
Patients with concomitant psoriasis required substantially more advanced therapy than those without psoriasis. Biologic use was reported in 40% of patients in the IBD-psoriasis group compared with 16% of patients in the IBD-only group. Similarly, immunomodulator use occurred in 60% of patients with psoriasis vs 20% of those without psoriasis.
Treatment escalation also occurred earlier among patients with concomitant psoriasis. According to the investigators, “treatment escalation to biologics or [immunomodulators] occurred earlier in patients with concomitant psoriasis” than in those with IBD alone, with a statistically significant difference observed in time-to-event analysis (log-rank P = 0.0021).
Although not statistically significant, additional trends suggested a potentially more severe disease course. Emergency room visits were numerically more common among patients with severe psoriasis, and the interval to a first major clinical event, defined as IBD-related surgery or emergency room visit, tended to be shorter in the psoriasis cohort.
The authors concluded that “concomitant psoriasis may be associated with increased treatment intensity and a more aggressive IBD course.”
Reference
Baek J, Jun YK, Kim JS, et al. Concomitant psoriasis may be associated with a more severe disease course in inflammatory bowel disease: a retrospective cohort study. Sci Rep. Published online June 2, 2026. doi:10.1038/s41598-026-56353-4
