Systematic review and critical appraisal of psoriasis clinical practice guidelines: a Global Guidelines in Dermatology Mapping Project (GUIDEMAP)

Summary Background Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) developed with rigorous methods can help optimize clinical care for patients with psoriasis. Objectives To conduct an updated systematic review and comprehensive critical appraisal of global psoriasis CPGs. Methods A search of MEDLINE and Embase for psoriasis CPGs published between 1 January 2015 and 31 March 2021 was performed. Other guideline repositories were also searched for relevant CPGs. Descriptive analysis was conducted to summarize included guidelines. Three critical appraisal tools were used to assess the quality of included CPGs: the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, Lenzer et al.’s red flags, and the US Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) criteria of trustworthiness. Results We included 33 psoriasis CPGs, with 25 openly accessible. Most CPGs were from high sociodemographic index countries in North America and Europe. Five CPGs received ‘excellent quality’ appraisals across all six AGREE II domains. Stakeholder involvement, rigour of development and applicability were the three domains with the lowest appraisal scores for AGREE II. Twenty‐two CPGs raised at least one red flag indicative of potential bias. By the IOM’s standards, external review of the guideline draft prior to publication and clear updating procedures were most often not addressed by guidelines, and only three CPGs were assessed as having higher overall trustworthiness. Conclusions Most psoriasis guidelines were unable to consistently demonstrate high quality across multiple appraisal tools. The EuroGuiDerm guideline on the systemic treatment of psoriasis vulgaris was the only CPG to receive ‘excellent quality’ across all six AGREE II domains, to raise no Lenzer’s red flags, and to have higher trustworthiness by IOM criteria. This review identified 33 psoriasis CPGs published globally since 2015; most were openly accessibly and originated from North America or Europe. Most guidelines were unable to consistently demonstrate high quality across multiple appraisal tools. Increased stakeholder involvement by relevant multi‐disciplinary health professionals and patients, external review of guideline draft prior to publication, and timely update of guidelines can help improve the quality of psoriasis CPGs. Linked Comment: I.D. Florez. Br J Dermatol 2022; 187:136–137.