We typically think of obesity complications mostly in terms of diabetes, heart disease, and maybe liver disease. So the news of tizepatide possibly offering important benefits to persons with obesity and psoriasis gave us a jolt. In fact, topline results from a clinical trial of tirzepatide in combination with immunotherapy (Taltz or ixekizumab) has people murmuring about a new paradigm for psoriasis care in persons with obesity.

Topline Results in Psoriatic Arthritis

After 36 weeks of concomitant therapy with Taltz and tirzepatide, the combination of those two drugs met both primary and secondary endpoints for superiority to Taltz alone in persons with psoriatic arthritis. These are topline results on their way to a full presentation and peer-reviewed publication.

Joseph Merola is chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He described the importance of these results:

“While treatment guidelines for psoriatic arthritis recommend management of obesity, the reality is these two chronic diseases are often addressed separately and moving the needle in psoriatic arthritis has remained challenging,

“The observed benefit with treatment using Taltz and Zepbound appears to meaningfully impact psoriatic disease activity, indicating that, for many patients, PsA is an obesity-related condition. This integrated therapy approach represents a potential paradigm shift and could lead to better outcomes for those living with both diseases.”

Treating Both Obesity and Psoriasis

It is becoming clear that the inflammation that comes with obesity can make psoriasis more problematic and its treatment more difficult. It is not at all clear that a GLP-1 agonist like tirzepatide by itself is helpful for treating psoriasis. But when a person has both psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, these new data suggest the possibility of a coming shift in the paradigm for medical care.

Increasingly, it is becoming clear that treating obesity is essential for treating psoriasis in persons living with obesity.

Click here for more on these topline results and here for more on the relationship between psoriasis therapies and obesity.

Hands of God and Adam, fresco painted by Michelangelo / WikiArt