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

• 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: Anti-rheumatic therapies; Assessment tools for mental health; Cognitive function; Depression; Fatigue; Inflammation
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40744-020-00217-4

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.