depression and RA

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While people with rheumatoid arthritis often feel

depressed, few discuss this with their doctors, according to a new report.

Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers are twice as likely as members of the general

population to experience depression, Dr. Betsy Sleath of the University of North

Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a multicenter team point out in the medical journal

Arthritis & Rheumatism.

For their study, the researchers recruited 200 rheumatoid arthritis patients

and eight rheumatologists. The patients' visits to their rheumatologist were

audiotaped, and the patients were interviewed after their visits.

Twenty-one patients (10.5 percent) had moderate to severe symptoms of

depression. The researchers found that patients whose functional status was most

severely impacted by their arthritis were more than twice as likely to have

moderate to severe depressive symptoms compared to those with better functional

status.

Of the 21 patients with depression, only four discussed depression during

their visits to their doctor -- and in every case, the patients brought up the

subject.

" These findings indicate that communication about depression needs to be

improved between rheumatoid arthritis patients and their doctors, " Sleath said

in an interview with Reuters Health.

Doctors should ask patients with rheumatoid arthritis if they are experiencing

depressive symptoms, and " patients need to be encouraged to let their doctors

know if they feel depressed, " Sleath said.

" There is often a stigma attached to depression which prevents individuals

from discussing how they feel with family, friends, or physicians, " she pointed

out. " But if individuals do not talk about it, it prevents them from getting

treatment that may help them. "

SOURCE: Arthritis & Rheumatism, February 2008.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited