Specialised Psychotherapy May Help Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Study Suggests

Lisa Franchi August 27, 2014

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a serious autoimmune disease characterised by severe pain that cause disability and joint disfigurement, and may interfere with a person’s quality of life. While medications are available to minimise the pain, some patients choose not to undergo treatments at all due to the high cost and undesirable side effects.

Good thing, new research from Wayne State and Duke Universities found that a non-pharmaceutical approach may be effective in helping individuals with RA cope with their condition.

The study, led by Mark A. Lumley, Ph.D., revealed cognitive-behavioural coping skills training (CST) had positive effects on the pain and mood of patients that lasted for at least one year. On the other hand, written emotional closure (WED) — expressive writing about stress — had only temporary and inconsistent benefits on patients’ joints and functioning, and did not help with pain or mood. Furthermore, the combination of CST and WED had had no unique benefits.

The CST programme involved training patients in various cognitive and behavioural techniques or skills to enhance their ability to cope with pain and improve their behavioural and psychological functioning.

“Our study revealed that patients with RA receive positive benefits in both the short and long-term using cognitive behavioural techniques such as relaxation, increasing pleasant activities, changing negative thoughts, and problem-solving,” said Lumley.

“WED, however, was less effective, and an examination of patients’ expressive writings suggests that many patients either did not have much unresolved stress or more likely did not know how to effectively identify important stressors, label and express their negative emotions, and learn from or resolve these conflicts while writing by themselves.

According to the researchers, continued development and integration of therapies that target the full range of processes underlying pain and functioning, not just biological but also behavioural, cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal, are critical for helping more RA patients have better health status.

Their findings were published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Source of this article: Specialized Psychotherapy Shown to Help Those with Rheumatoid Arthritis