The American Academy of Dermatology (ADD) has published guidelines of care for the prevention and management of atopic dermatitis in paediatric patients.

Commonly known as eczema, atopic dermatitis is the most common skin disease, affecting up to 25% of children worldwide. A long-lasting inflammatory skin disease, eczema can cause itchy skin, dry patches, rashes and rough bumps.

Murad Alam, AAD President and board-certified dermatologist, said: “Eczema is extremely common in children, although it doesn’t always look or behave the same way it does in adults. We need dedicated guidelines just for children to ensure their best care.”

The new guidelines recognise the unique safety, dosing and patient-caregiver-clinician interactions of paediatric patients to guide dermatologists through treatment and prevention options.

Published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD), the guidelines were developed by a group of 14 experts, including 11 board-certified dermatologists and one paediatric allergist.

For the prevention of eczema in children aged six months to three years, the guidelines conditionally recommend moisturisers. A conditional recommendation is given to interventions where the benefits are closely balanced with risks and burdens.

Along with providing 26 evidence-based recommendations for treatments, including moisturisers, topical calcineurin inhibitors, topical corticosteroids and phosphodiesterate-4 inhibitors, multiple conditional recommendations were also made.

The AAD strongly recommended against systemic corticosteroids as they should only be used as a short-term bridge therapy for sudden, severe flares.

Dawn Davis, co-chair of the AAD’s Atopic Dermatitis Guideline Workgroup and board-certified dermatologist, said: “These guidelines were developed to educate and empower patients, caregivers and the medical community.

“Since 2014, the landscape for eczema care has been transformed by the approval of new therapies for adults. Our goal was to review how these advancements relate to the paediatric population so children also receive optimal, individualised care.”

Takeda has released the outcome of two phase 3 studies of zasocitinib (TAK-279) in adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis (PsO), with data presented at the 2026 American Academy of Dermatology (ADD) Annual Meeting.

An oral TYK2 inhibitor, zasocitinib, was studied in the randomised, multicentre Latitude PsO 3001 and 3002 studies, in which over half of patients who received the treatment achieved clear or almost clear skin at week 16.

Melinda Gooderham, dermatologist, SKiN Centre for Dermatology, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, principal investigator for the Latitude PsO studies and presenting author, said: “Our goal in psoriasis treatment is clear or almost clear skin and previously this has been achieved primarily with injectable therapies.

“These efficacy and safety results show it’s possible for a once-daily pill to deliver rapid, lasting skin clearance, highlighting the potential of zasocitinib to become a leading oral treatment option for plaque psoriasis.”

Zasocitinib was also seen to improve complete clearance. Responses for co-primary and key secondary endpoints continued to increase until week 24 in both studies. The treatment was generally well tolerated, with the safety profile of zasocitinib remaining consistent with prior studies.

Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) occurred in 62.1% of patients who received zasocitinib, 46.9% of those dosed with placebo and 50.5% of apremilast patients, until week 16. The most common adverse events observed in those dosed until week 16 with the treatment were upper respiratory tract infection, nasopharyngitis and acne.

Chinwe Ukomadu, senior vice president and head, Gastrointestinal & Inflammation Therapeutic Area Unit at Takeda, said: “The positive data also underscore zasocitinib’s potential to deliver rapid and durable results with a favourable safety profile consistent with phase 2b studies.

“We are working as quickly as possible with regulators to advance a potential new therapeutic option for patients seeking a safe, effective and convenient oral treatment.”