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Counselling gives better quality of life to arthritis sufferers
May 11 : A new study has found that arthritis sufferers who undergo psychological counselling and learn skills for coping with pain have less disability and enjoy a better quality of life.
Living with arthritis pain can lead to depression and isolation. Severely afflicted people are often unable to socialize or participate in favourite activities. Limited mobility and loss of fine-motor function can make hard it to perform everyday tasks, like cooking or getting dressed.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers and was co-authored by Francis Keefe at Duke University Medical Center.
As part of the study, researchers analysed 27 randomised controlled trials involving 3,409 patients with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis to look at how psychosocial interventions affected pain.
The review focussed on cognitive-behavioural therapy, a treatment based on changing unhelpful patterns of thinking for pain management. An important facet of this therapy was training in specific coping skills, such as using relaxation techniques and pacing daily activities.
Other interventions included biofeedback, stress management, emotional disclosure, hypnosis and psychodynamic therapy.
Researchers found patients who received the interventions reported a significant decrease in anxiety, depression and psychological disability.
Patients who received psychological treatments also had significant reductions in physical disability and joint swelling, although there was no difference in levels of fatigue or stiffness.
“This early-intervention approach could have many benefits in terms of preventing problems in coping from developing and [then] becoming entrenched,” Keefe said.
“If patients begin to develop problems coping with persistent pain, they could ask their health care provider to refer them to a psychologist who specializes in pain coping skills and cognitive behaviour interventions,” Keefe added.
The findings of the research were published in the May issue of the journal Health Psychology. (ANI)
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