Authors
Amr Molla, Raed Jannadi
Published in
The Journal of dermatological treatment. Volume 37. Issue 1. Pages 2639945. Epub Mar 09, 2026.
Abstract
Real-world comparative evidence on systemic agents, phototherapy, and biologics for atopic dermatitis (AD) remains limited.
To compare 24-week effectiveness and safety of methotrexate (MTX), cyclosporine, narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy, upadacitinib, and dupilumab in adults with AD.
In this multicenter retrospective cohort (N = 1000; 200 per monotherapy group) across Saudi Arabia, SCORAD was extracted at baseline and mapped to prespecified weeks 2, 6, 12, and 24. Confounding was addressed using a multinomial propensity score (baseline SCORAD, age, sex, nationality) with overlap weighting; balance was assessed using Max |SMD|. Longitudinal change from baseline (ΔSCORAD) was analyzed using overlap-weighted generalized estimating equations with a treatment-by-time interaction, reporting adjusted marginal mean ΔSCORAD (95% CI).
Unadjusted 24-week improvement was highest with dupilumab (75.8%) and upadacitinib (74.1%) (p < 0.001). In overlap-weighted models, both were associated with the largest week-24 improvements (ΔSCORAD -27.04 and -26.68). NB-UVB and methotrexate were intermediate, whereas cyclosporine had smaller sustained improvement. Upadacitinib had the highest recorded adverse-event frequency (68.5%), whereas dupilumab had the lowest (9%).
Dupilumab and upadacitinib were associated with larger 24-week SCORAD improvements than conventional systemic therapies and NB-UVB within this stratified analytic cohort. Results are associative and may be affected by residual confounding.
PMID:
41800711
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 09 Mar 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 11
- Comments 0