It was quite the struggle getting up Friday morning after the swift burst of excitement from Universal. We were shuttled back into the event location around 11:30pm. By the time we got home and I was able to shower/get ready for bed, it was past 12am. So preparation for Friday’s long events seemed arduous at the start of the day.
Once we were back in the venue, it was time to work. Kelly was alert and ready with a smile, manning our booth, and I was keen on hitting every poster and mini-symposium I could before we needed a food break (and I didn’t want to eat my weight in candy). Luckily, at the large Mary Kay symposium, I was handed a lunch bag!
The symposium was on air pollution and the effects it has on the skin, especially in places that are high in pollution like Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. A few things that are affected by air pollution are eczema, skin cancer, uticaria, acne vulgaris. There was a study presented that showed how pollution in Saudi Arabia was contributing to obesity and type 2 diabetes. And if there is chronic traffic pollution, facial letigens were increased. Researches were trying to find out if anti-oxidants (a specific mixture for the skin) could help suppress pollution-induced issues on the dermis. For example, DEP exposure induces skin darkening and melanin production. An enzyme called CYP1A1 is shown to reverse this damage.
When I linked back up with Kelly, she was super excited to have spoken with the NEA (The National Eczema Association) and felt confident that our voices were finally being heard. Just 5 years ago, TSW was deemed a myth on their website. Then a few years later, they had a task force put together to investigate this phenomenon because so many asked about it. Now, we have TSW being discussed on podcasts and being seen as one of the 3 leading reasons for worsening eczema. We also, while seated at our booth, were able to speak to two separate men (a researcher and a professor) who are in works with natural remedies for our atopic issues. They both agreed that topicals were dangerous to mess with long term.
Friday night was the big talk given by Amy Paller entitled, “How our Increasing Understanding of Pathogenesis is Translating into New and Emerging Therapies.” There was a lot of repetition from the early lecture on atopic dermatitis, however she delved into a few other therapies a bit more, particularly JAK inhibitors. This can help reduce inflammation. There was a study done (and I don’t believe steroids were allowed to be used) where 90% of the participants had mod-to-severe atopic dermatitis. It lasted 4 weeks, 2x a day using the JAK inhibitor or placebo, and they saw that it seemed to do slightly better than tacrolimus.
Two other newer treatments were 1) Topical Tapinarof. It resembles coal tar and can improve the skin barrier, along with lessening inflammation. It worked 50% of the time, fully clearing or almost clearing patients. The other treatment is 2) Commensal bacteria. This was touched upon in the other lecture, but Amy Paller mentioned a treatment called Roseomonas Mucosa. It is in open label study that is sprayed on the fossae and showed reduction of bad bacteria and improvement of the local SCORAD, along with reduced steroid use! (SCORAD is one way researchers and doctors measure the success of a drug or treatment).
One treatment that has already been out for a couple of years is Crisaborale, or Eucrisa. It is a non-steroidal PDE4 inhibitor. The trial for the drug lasted 48 weeks, and showed minimal detection in the blood. I do not remember the percentage for the effectiveness of the drug, but I do remember it being a bit low.
She, too, brought up antibiotic resistance issues, as well as the side effects AD can have on children. It showed that some may be more prone to having ADD — however, that may be happening because of the large amount of antihistamines being prescribed to patients. There are also many studies showing that 16% of patients showcase anxiety, and 14% have depression.
Overall, her talk was informative of new treatments, but it’s easy to tell that she is still very defensive of steroids and their cherished use in dermatology. She had shared a slide about allergies/contact dermatitis, and topical steroids were on the list of culprits. She would not mention their name and quickly scanned over the slide. I feel it is really hard for many dermatologists to acknowledge how unsafe topical steroids can be because it has been engrained in their mind that this is the one effective drug that works for patients — the end all, be all healer of eczema. I do appreciate how hard some of them are working though to find better and safer ways to deal with atopic dermatitis, long term. Change is coming, and I am glad she is talking about it!!
Instead of staying Friday night for the dinner after Paller’s lecture, we called it a night and cooked together at the apartment. She and I were exhausted, both of us still dealing with our individual TSW issues. We still didn’t get to bed until very late, myself strategizing about the next day and trying to decompress (I bought a new TENS stem machine at the conference from a booth next to ours and I was using it while cooking).
Saturday was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. The morning was fabulous. I came in earlier than Kelly to our booth and ended up speaking to two separate groups of medical students who were looking around. They had never heard of topical steroid addiction before, one even stating that she was learning about steroids at that moment and nothing like this had ever come up. Such a red flag knowing this isn’t even being touched upon in a class. However, to my and Kelly’s dismay, we had another run in with why we are encountering so many unpleasant and arrogant doctors.
Dr. Steven Feldman, a man who is supposed to be a professional dermatologist who teaches students, was ABSOLUTELY APPALLING. He gave a huge lecture on atopic dermatitis. I knew it was going to go downhill (and I mean, steep-no-brakes type of downhill) when he gave us an anecdote about this one patient who was getting worse and worse despite the amount of steroids he was using, so Dr. Feldman admitted him into the ER on a Friday, lathered him in triamcinolone, and by Monday he was better. He goes, “… there are 3 reason why someone who is extremely atopic, has tried everything, and then is sent to the ER where they cover them in triamcinolone and suddenly clear up … 1) poor compliance 2) poor compliance 3) poor compliance.” He reiterated this ALL throughout the lecture. It was always the patient’s fault if they weren’t getting better.
I can not even touch upon the nastiness of his scorn and condescension towards patients. What upset me most is when I looked him up and saw how his practice is unbelievably two-faced. On one website that showcases Dr. Feldman, this is what is stated below his biography: 
“Patients should recognize that physicians do care (even if it doesn’t seem that way.” — I witnessed this man show a presentation on how biologics work, turn to the audience with a prideful smirk and say, “We should play that video for patients. They’d leave with more questions than answers.” The little laugh that came out after just cranked up my anger.
“Sticking with one doctor and building a strong, trusting relationship…” — Trusting? He gave MORE than one scenario where he said he’d manipulate or lie to a patient. One instance is him manipulating the patient into using a new drug. He said if a patient was concerned about trying a new drug, he’d tell them an anecdote about how he JUST saw a patient in his office, in THE VERY SAME CHAIR they were sitting in, and they were using the drug and are super happy! YEA! *super sarcastic* The story didn’t have to be true; it would be told to ensure that the patient would be more swayed into taking the drug.
The biggest lie, which was told with SUCH condescension (like nails on a chalkboard) was his policy on “skirting around” the steroid question. He literally stated that he wouldn’t answer the question “is this a steroid?” when a patient asked. Instead, he would say (and this is WORD FOR WORD since he said it SO MANY TIMES throughout the lecture):
*in a soft-spoken, patronizing tone*
“This is an all natural, organic, anti-inflammatory designed to compliment your natural healing mechanisms to bring the immune system back into balance and harmony because I like to take the holistic approach to the management of patients with skin disease.” BUTTTTTTTT then he’d add on “gluten-free, made in a nut-free facility” if they dressed like a hippy and were from California. ANNNNDDD THENNN, he’d add on, “made in America” to anyone who was wearing a red hat that said make America great again.
How unprofessional is that?
And this is a man who is EDUCATING students! The whole lecture itself counted as a continuing education course!!! Everyone that needed a continuing ed credit could receive one at the end by filling out a survey!! Despicable.
How are we supposed to trust doctors when this is what is happening behind our backs? We weren’t allowed to film the lecture. Why? Because then THIS type of behavior would be exposed? This was my reaction afterwards:
It truly brought our fighting spirit out that afternoon. These are the kinds of doctors so many sufferers are up against in the office. When we are told to hold a conversation with our doctor, THIS is what most are met with — haughty, know-it-alls who blame the patient for everything! We are the reason for our suffering, not them. They are devoid of any responsibility. Not all dermatologists of course are in this man’s category, but it’s very apparent that people who share his views are scattered all around the United States. It’s dangerous allowing him and others like him to be the leaders of ‘continuing’ education.
I needed to have a quick ‘harness-yourself’ moment before Kelly and I got ready to sit through 2.5 hours of atopic dermatitis poster discussions. We were at the end of our ropes and tired but we managed to get through them! We couldn’t miss out on those while we were there.
There were 11 poster presentations in total. I’ll give snippets of each (if there were things of importance to share.)
1. How most adults with AD have it mainly on their face and neck. So they were trying to target certain genes that may be linked to this. They found 3 specific ones to re-sequence that may help these types of patients.
2. Talked about OX40 inhibition (one of the biologics are targeting this) and how it may be helpful to those with T-cell driven AD. The clinical trial was very small, though. More trials still need to be done.
3. Talked a lot about IL-22 expression and trial being done. I have a feeling steroids were used during the trial, and they also said IL 22 by itself isn’t significant, but if it’s tied with other cytokines, it can play a role.
4. Spoke about JAK inhibitors — they reduce IL 2, 4, 6, 13 and 31. They had 419 participants in the study but many were dropped because they didn’t allow rescue medication, and they were transparent with the fact that once the person stopped the drug, they went back to baseline (meaning lack to their original state).
5. Spoke about PAR2 over expression and how it shows dysfunctional barrier, entry of allergens, which then activates immune response (mast cells go up), and then ends with deterioration of barrier.
6. This one was a bit overly scientific for me to fully follow. Spoke about Suprabasin (SBSN), an amino, and how nickel absorption is heightened in mice that are deficient in SBSN.
7. This speaker was talking about pH balance, but his accent made it difficult to follow, sadly.
8. Discovery of filaggrin loss of function variants in Hispanic and African American/Native American children with AD – High prevalence in central and south America for AD (which maybe can be because these places may not have regulation of steroids? — just my thinking). There are 3 known filaggrin models (10, 11, or 12 repeats). High loss of filaggrin in Asia and in some parts of Africa. The frequency of FLG loss of production is enriched in mod-to-severe AD observed in kids. Basically, she’s found 6 different discoveries in variants.
9. AD is associated with fragile homes in US children – Can worsen with anxiety and stress, and create financial burden. Higher odds of AD in children living with single adult families, non-biological fathers, unmarried mothers, and single mothers. Stress can trigger early childhood trauma and genetics. (There is a chicken or the egg scenario here though, depending on how in depth this study went — did the children have AD which caused a rift in the household ,thus playing a role in the couples splitting? Or did the couples splitting worsen the child’s AD due to stress?)
10. Another study on Staph aureus and how different good bacteria may help — such as S. hominis and S. epidermidis.
11. Another Dupilumab study and safety profile. They only seem to see a slightly higher prevalence of conjunctivitis in patients who use the drug. About 10% I believe in the trials had this side effect.
Once all the presentations were over, we went to the closing ceremony (which many didn’t care to attend), and it seems this is the last IID conference. They are now calling it the SIID (I believe) and it will be held in Tokyo in 2022. The next SID conference will be held in Chicago next May. I’m sure ITSAN will be attending, hoping to make even more connections.
As we were walking to our cars, Kelly asks, “Want to get Pho?” My mind was so cluttered and overwhelmed, I just stared blankly and couldn’t even recall what pho was. I’m glad she suggested it — delishhh. What the doctor ordered.
The conference was a wonderful experience (with a bit of sour thrown in). I think we still have a ways to go, but it is refreshing to see curious med students and other doctors who see what an issue long term use of steroids has become. There are still those steadfast, obstinate doctors who aren’t able to look past archaic ideals and views, but we will prevail one day for the betterment of treatment and patient care. #IID2018
It was an honor so sit beside ITSAN. They have been doing such a stellar job being professional while advocating for Topical Steroid Withdrawal. It’s not an easy road they are on. Changing minds in a tactful and responsible way for the sake of saving others from pain and years of suffering is extremely commendable and worthy of a round of applause!
Mel Lynch
Kirk Robertson
Danny Brooks
Elizabeth King
Preventable: Protecting Our Largest Organ 