A preliminary study of etanercept in the treatment of severe, resistant psoriatic arthritis

Objective To survey the effectiveness of etanercept in the treatment of severe, resistant psoriatic arthritis. Methods Ten patients coming from the clinical practice of 5 different rheumatologists and already using etanercept (25 mg subcutaneously twice weekly) were formally assessed at 3 and 12 months after etanercept use. Results All patients had improvement in their arthritis. Five of the 10 patients had no arthritis, 4 required only etanercept for disease control at 3 months. At 12 months, 8 of 10 patients were still on etanercept with continued good response. One patient had to discontinue etanercept due to osteomyelitis, and one due to increased disease activity. Of 4 patients with active skin disease, 3 had complete clearing. There were no side effects related to etanercept in this small, heterogeneously collected group of patients. Conclusions This preliminary and rather favorable experience with etanercept suggests that properly controlled trials of this agent in psoriatic arthritis are needed.