WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allay Rx, a subsidiary of Amalgam Rx, Inc., a leading digital therapeutics company, announced today a partnership on a comprehensive behavioral and patient support program, BEYOND, for patients living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. BEYOND is a mobile application and provides patients with a trusted source of information, tools, and support. The app is designed to help people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis reduce stress and improve resilience while living and dealing with the physical and psychological burden of the diseases.
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Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are chronic auto-immune conditions affecting millions of people globally. Stress can be a common trigger for many patients living with these diseases because it increases inflammation, which can worsen symptoms and cause new flare-ups. Growing evidence indicates that the same processes that trigger inflammation in psoriatic disease also creates changes in the brain that affect emotional states. A study published in the journal Archives of Dermatology found that those living with psoriasis have a 39 percent greater risk of being diagnosed with depression and a 31 percent risk of anxiety than those without the disease.
“Living with psoriasis is a stressful and isolating experience for people. They feel embarrassed and self-conscious about their very visible and often misunderstood disease,” said Andrew Blauvelt, MD, MBA, president and investigator at Oregon Medical Research Center in Portland, OR. “Psychological factors can be as big a determinant of disability in patients as can skin disease severity and location, which is why it is so important to address the emotional and social problems patients are experiencing. In fact, research has found that stress makes psoriasis worse. All patients with psoriasis deserve to be treated with the best available therapies and receive the emotional support they need.”
“So often, people living with a chronic disease are worn down from constantly worrying about their health; learning how to stay positive is an important aspect in patients’ self-care,” said Suzanne Clough, MD, chief medical officer and co-founder, Amalgam Rx. “Building on our pioneering work in digital health, we created BEYOND to be a comprehensive, holistic, and tailored self-management program, which teaches these resilience building skills while also helping people living with psoriasis reduce stress and improve their overall wellness by connecting with others.”
“BEYOND is currently in clinical testing with patients to gain valuable user and healthcare provider feedback with an anticipated launch date in 2018,” said Ryan Sysko, chief executive officer and co-founder, Amalgam Rx. “BEYOND is the perfect example of Amalgam executing on its strategy of working with life sciences companies to develop clinically validated digital health solutions that go beyond-the-pill. Our mantra is ‘turning population health into personalized care’ and that’s what BEYOND hopes to achieve.”
About Amalgam Rx and Allay Rx
Amalgam Rx creates custom digital therapies that combine clinical and behavioral health and interventions to engage, support, and improve patient self-management. Led by an experienced team of physicians, behaviorists, technologists, and digital health pioneers, Amalgam Rx strives to use technology to accelerate the impact and scale of medicine to improve the lives of millions of people living with chronic disease. Amalgam does this by partnering with leading life sciences companies to accelerate the R&D and commercialization of digital therapeutics. Allay Rx is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amalgam Rx that is focused on auto-immune disorders such as psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. For more information, visit http://amalgamrx.com/.