Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Impact of Mental Health on Disease: A Narrative Review

Plain Language Summary Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory condition that affects 1% of the global population. RA can cause inflammation and damage to the joints. It can also present with extra-articular manifestations, affecting other major organs in the body. RA patients...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: May N. Lwin, Lina Serhal, Christopher Holroyd, Christopher J. Edwards
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Adis, Springer Healthcare 2020-06-01
Series:Rheumatology and Therapy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40744-020-00217-4
Description
Summary:Plain Language Summary Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory condition that affects 1% of the global population. RA can cause inflammation and damage to the joints. It can also present with extra-articular manifestations, affecting other major organs in the body. RA patients are more prone to have anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment compared to the general healthy population. Those mental health conditions contribute to less responsiveness to treatment and higher disease activity in RA mainly due to fatigue and bodily pain. Medications used in RA can improve anxiety and depression to a certain extent but not completely. Therefore, it is important to determine the most appropriate tool to monitor mental health well-being and quality of life (QoL) of RA patients in rheumatology outpatient clinics to optimise the care of the RA patients.
ISSN:2198-6576
2198-6584