RESEARCH - Cognitive impairment in rheumatoid arthritis

October 3, 2004

Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 2004 Jun;26(5):339-43.

Cognitive impairment in rheumatoid arthritis.

Appenzeller S, Bertolo MB, Costallat LT.

Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, State University of

Campinas Faculty of Medical Sciences, Campinas, Brazil.

appenzel@...

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of cognitive

impairment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A cross-sectional

study of 40 patients with RA and 40 healthy controls was performed. To

assess cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression, the following

standardized psychiatric and clinical research methods were used: the

Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), logic memory tests, short and long

memory tests, verbal fluency tests, attention tests, the Brief

Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression

(HAD)/CAGE scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Patients and

controls with incomplete primary education were excluded from the study.

Statistics were performed by chi-square test and by Fisher's exact test.

Cognitive impairment was observed in 30% of patients with RA and in 7.5%

(p < 0.05) of healthy controls. Patients with RA had a significantly

worse outcome in verbal fluency (p < 0.05), logic memory (p < 0.05) and

short memory (p < 0.05). No statistical difference was observed among

the results obtained in the MMSE, BPRS, HAD/CAGE and BDI. There was no

significant relation to the duration of the illness, use of

corticotherapy or disability. We observed a high prevalence of cognitive

impairment in RA patients. Cognitive impairment was not related to

clinical and treatment features or disability. More studies are

necessary to determine clinical impact of cognitive impairment in RA.

PMID: 15319812

ct & list_uids=15319812

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