A Study to Describe the Characteristics of Patients Treated With Apremilast for Plaque Psoriasis in Italian Routine Clinical Practice

DARWIN: Description of Apremilast Real World Italian Psoriasis Network - a Multicenter, Observational, Cross-sectional Study to Describe Patient Characteristics and Treatment Pattern

The DARWIN study is an Italian multicenter, observational, cross-sectional study involving both a primary data collection (at enrollment visit) and secondary use of data (retrospective observation period). DARWIN will describe patients' characteristics in Italian routine clinical practice as well as the medication utilization patterns, including needs and benefits form the patient's perspective.

The DARWIN study is anticipated to enroll 375 participants from 24 Italian dermatologic departments and recruitment is expected to take approximately 20 months. Participants must have started apremilast treatment 6 (±1) months prior enrollment in order to be considered eligible. The decision to prescribe apremilast falls within current practice according to the current decision-making process in the Italian routine clinical practice and according to AIFA prescribing information. No extra-procedures (diagnostic or monitoring) will be implemented and the assessment schedule reflects the routine clinical practice for psoriatic patients treated with apremilast. Patients will be consecutively enrolled in the study and information will be collected as recorded in the medical chart before starting apremilast (as close as possible to the apremilast start date/index date), and/or directly observed during the enrolment visit. The study variables will describe patient disease and characteristics, apremilast utilization patterns, psoriasis severity a, extent and impact on patient wellbeing, apremilast safety profile and apremilast satisfaction.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Must have understood and voluntarily signed the informed consent and privacy form.
2. Age ≥ 18 years at the time of signing the informed consent and privacy form.
3. Patients with available hospital medical chart since the start of apremilast treatment ('index date').
4. Diagnosis of plaque psoriasis.
5. Treatment with apremilast for plaque psoriasis, according to Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), started 6 (±1) months before enrollment. Patients who interrupted apremilast treatment before enrollment will also be included.
6. Ability to understand (read & write) the Italian language and to follow the study instructions.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Refusal to participate in this study or current participation in the treatment phase of an interventional clinical trial.
2. Started apremilast as part of a clinical trial, or previous apremilast use (prior to the index date).