Impact of Therapeutic Inertia on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Moderate-to-Severe Atopic Dermatitis: A 12-Month Longitudinal Study from the TARGET-DERM AD Registry

The patient-reported outcome consequences of therapeutic inertia in AD—specifically, what happens to POEM, DLQI, and other PROs over 12 months when treatment is not escalated despite inadequate disease control—had not been quantified in a real-world longitudinal study.

The TARGET-DERM AD registry was used to compare longitudinal PRO trajectories between AD patients whose therapy was escalated and those in whom therapeutic inertia occurred (no escalation despite unmet AHEAD targets), quantifying the 12-month PRO burden of undertreated disease.

Demonstrating that therapeutic inertia is associated with persistently worse patient-reported outcomes over 12 months provides compelling real-world evidence for prescriber escalation guidelines and supports payer arguments that timely treatment optimization reduces the long-term patient burden of inadequately controlled AD.

PRO consequences of therapeutic inertia in AD for prescriber education and treatment escalation advocacy, Real-world 12-month PRO burden evidence supporting timely treatment optimization in moderate-to-severe AD, Evidence base for payer and guideline arguments around early escalation in AD management