This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (30)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Dermatology  • Dermatologic Disorders  • Quality of Care  • Patient Safety/ Medical Error  • Psoriasis  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Gerald G. Krueger, MD; Lynn A. Drake, MD; Peter M. Elias, MD; Nicholas J. Lowe, MD; Cynthia Guzzo, MD; Gerald D. Weinstein, MD; Deborah A. Lew-Kaya, PharmD; John C. Lue, MS; John Sefton, PhD; Roshantha A. S. Chandraratna, PhD

Arch Dermatol. 1998;134:57-60.

Objective  To determine the safety and efficacy of topically applied tazarotene gel in the treatment of mild to moderate psoriatic plaques.

Design  Two multicenter, double-blind, randomized studies of 6- and 8-week duration, with an 8-week follow-up in the second study.

Setting  Medical center outpatient dermatology services.

Participants  One hundred fifty-three adults with 2 bilateral target plaques on the trunk, legs, or arms.

Interventions  Vehicle gel or 0.01% and 0.05% tazarotene gel administered twice daily to 45 patients (study A), or 0.05% and 0.1% tazarotene gel administered either once or twice daily to 108 patients (study B).

Main Outcome Measures  Treatment success and plaque elevation, scaling, and erythema vs time.

Results  The 0.01% tazarotene gel showed minimal efficacy. Applications of 0.05% and 0.1% tazarotene gels administered once or twice daily, resulted in significant improvements in plaque elevation, scaling, erythema, and overall clinical severity as early as 1 week. Treatment success rates (defined as >75% improvement from baseline) were 45% with 0.05% tazarotene gel vs 13% with vehicle gel after 6 weeks of treatment (P<.05; study A) and ranged from 48% to 63% with the various tazarotene treatment regimens after 8 weeks of treatment (study B). These improvements were evident at the 8-week follow-up. Treatment-related adverse effects were generally limited to mild or moderate local irritation and were less frequent with the treatment regimen administered once daily.

Conclusion  The 0.05% and 0.1% tazarotene gels demonstrated significant efficacy in the treatment of mild to moderate psoriatic plaques that persisted after cessation of treatment.

From the Departments of Dermatology, The University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City (Dr Krueger), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (Dr Drake), Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (Dr Guzzo), and University of California at Irvine, Irvine (Dr Weinstein); the Dermatology Service, Fort Miley Veterans Administration Hospital, San Francisco, Calif (Dr Elias); the Skin Research Foundation of California, Santa Monica (Dr Lowe); Allergan, Inc, Irvine (Ms Lew-Kaya, Mr Lue, and Drs Sefton and Chandraratna).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

{blacktriangledown}Tazarotene - a topical retinoid for psoriasis
DTB 1999;37:47-48.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT