Using the standard adult dose of ustekinumab in patients aged 12- to 17-years provides the same response to psoriasis and no adverse events through one year, according to a randomized study.

Investigators randomly assigned 100 young people with moderate to severe psoriasis to standard ustekinumab dosing or standard half-dosing at weeks 0 and 4 and every 12 weeks, or to placebo at weeks 0 and 4 with crossover to ustekinumab standard dose or half standard dose at week 12.

Researchers measured the proportion of patients who achieved a:

• Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA) of cleared or minimal;

• 75% improvement in PASI score; and

• 90% improvement in PASI score

At week 12, more than two-thirds of those receiving half standard dose and nearly 70% receiving standard dose achieved cleared or minimal PGA scores, compared with 5.4% in the placebo group. Similarly, PASI75 and PASI90 scores were better in the half standard and standard dose groups than in the placebo contingent.

Citation: Landells I, Marano C, Hsu M, et al. Ustekinumab in adolescent patients age 12 to 17 years with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis: Results of the randomized phase 3 CADMUS study, Capsule Summary. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2015;73(4):594-603.