Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most common chronic inflammatory arthritis, are twice as likely as other individuals to experience depression.
Although depression in primary care has been well studied, no studies have examined whether rheumatologists and RA patients discuss depression during medical visits. A new study published in the February issue of Arthritis Care & Research ( http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/arthritiscare) found that patients whose activities were more restricted due to their arthritis were more than twice as likely to have moderately severe to severe symptoms of depression. It also found that few depressed patients discussed their condition with their rheumatologists and the subject was always brought up by the patients as opposed to the physicians.
Led by Betsy Sleath, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, the study included 200 RA patients from four rheumatology clinics with eight participating doctors. Patient visits were audiotaped and patients were interviewed after their medical visits using a questionnaire to measure their mental status.
The results showed that almost 11% of the patients in the study had moderately severe to severe symptoms of depression and that those who were rated as being more restricted in their normal activities were significantly more likely to have these symptoms. Furthermore, only 1 in 5 of the patients who showed symptoms discussed depression with their rheumatologists and they were always the ones to bring up the topic. Even when depression was brought up, it was often not discussed at any length.