A prior psychiatric diagnosis is common among adolescent patients prescribed isotretinoin for acne, and predicts the presence of more psychiatric symptoms during isotretinoin treatment, mainly low mood and mood swings, according to study findings published in Pediatric Dermatology. While isotretinoin is a preferred treatment for severe acne, data are mixed regarding the impact of isotretinoin vs antiacne antibiotics on psychiatric outcomes. A lack of relevant studies and the possible negative effect of isotretinoin on mental health may be associated with the reluctance of some clinicians to pr ..read more

Investigators identified the first association between cosmetic procedures and HIV transmission after examining health practices at a spa in New Mexico, highlighting the need for proper infection control practices. These findings, reported through a collaborative investigation by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH), were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). It is well documented that HIV can and has been transmitted through the sharing of needles between individuals with contaminated blood; howev ..read more

The majority of currently available artificial intelligence (AI)-based dermatology applications (apps) for mobile devices in the United States are not backed by peer-reviewed research, were developed without input from clinicians or dermatologists, and are not sufficiently transparent about their algorithm development and data use/privacy, according to study results published in JAMA Dermatology. Notably, none of the apps had US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Although there are now many direct-to-consumer mobile apps claiming to be of benefit to people researching skin conditions ..read more

HealthDay News — Systemic antibiotic exposure in the first year of life is associated with higher atopic dermatitis (AD) risk in a dose-response fashion, according to a study published online April 24 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Courtney Hoskinson, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues examined the timing and specific factors mediating the relationship among systemic (oral or intravenous) antibiotic usage, the gut microbiome, and AD. The researchers found that systemic antibiotics during the first year of life, as compared with late ..read more

HealthDay News — The most socially vulnerable counties are less likely to have any cancer clinical trial, according to a research letter published online May 7 in JAMA Network Open. Rishi Robert Sekar, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined the association between county-level social determinants of health (SDOH) and cancer clinical trial availability in the United States. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of county-level trial availability and SDOH were performed. The study included 3,142 counties with a mean Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) of 0.5 ..read more

Patients with skin melanoma who receive treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors are more likely to develop incident uveitis, according to research published in Ophthalmology. Previously, studies have indicated that while immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) bolster the immune response to tumors, they can also cause ocular, immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Small studies and studies that lacked control groups have indicated that uveitis occurs in no more than about 1% of patients who receive ICI therapy. “Therefore, in this nationwide retrospective cohort study, we aimed to investigate th ..read more

Drug Pharmacologic Class Proposed Indication Status Cardiovascular Disease AB-1002 (AskBio) Gene therapy to increase production of protein inhibitor 1 Treatment of congestive heart failure. Fast Track designation Dermatologic Disorders Bimekizumab-bkzx (UCB) Interleukin-17A, 17F inhibitor Treatment of adults with moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa. Supplemental BLA accepted for review Tapinarof cream, 1% (Dermavant Sciences) Aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist For topical treatment of atopic dermatitis in adults and children 2 years of age and older. Supplemental NDA accept ..read more

A small proportion of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) have alopecia and taste disorders, according to a new study published in the journal BMC Neurology.  “Clinicians should be aware of the nonmotor symptoms in MG, especially in patients with severe myasthenic symptoms and thymoma-associated MG,” the authors wrote. Read more about the symptoms of MG To assess the nonmotor symptoms of MG in a large cohort, a team of researchers, led by Kimiaki Utsugisawa, MD, PhD, from the Hanamaki General Hospital in Hanamaki, Japan, assessed the incidence and clinical characteristics of patients wit ..read more

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Myhibbin, a ready-to-use, oral suspension formulation of mycophenolate mofetil. Myhibbin is an antimetabolite immunosuppressant indicated for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult and pediatric recipients 3 months of age and older of allogeneic kidney, heart or liver transplants, in combination with other immunosuppressants. Myhibbin is supplied as an oral suspension containing 200 mg/mL of mycophenolate mofetil. Each 225 mL bottle contains 175 mL of suspension. The product is expected to be commercially available in the second quarter ..read more

In patients with psoriasis, poorer early treatment response, smoking, longer disease duration, and obesity may be associated with a less favorable longer-term response to biologics, according to study results published in Dermatologic Therapy. Researchers reported findings of their post hoc analyses of data from the multicenter, global, phase 3 ECLIPSE (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03090100) and VOYAGE 1 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02207231) trials, which aimed to assess which characteristics in patients with psoriasis are associated with a favorable response to treatment with biol ..read more