Tocilizumab Boosted Quality Of Life in Rheumatoid Arthritis

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
NANCY WALSH
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-223
Author(s):  
Rostislav A. Grekhov ◽  
Galina P. Suleimanova ◽  
Andrei S. Trofimenko ◽  
Liudmila N. Shilova

This review highlights the issue of psychosomatic conditions in rheumatoid arthritis, paying special attention to new researches and trends in this field. Emerging concepts in all the major parts of the problem are covered consecutively, from the impact of chronic musculoskeletal pain on the emotional state to disease influence over quality of life, socio-psychological, and interpersonal relationships. Chronic pain is closely related to emotional responses and coping ability, with a pronounced positive effect of psychotherapeutic interventions, family and social support on it. Psychosexual disorders, anxiety, depression also commonly coexist with rheumatoid arthritis, leading to further decrease in quality of life, low compliance, and high suicide risk. Influence of psychosomatic conditions on the overall treatment effect is usually underestimated by rheumatologists and general practitioners. Psychosomatic considerations are of great importance for up-to-date management of rheumatoid arthritis, as they strongly influence the quality of life, compliance, and thereby disease outcomes. Two major approaches of psychological rehabilitation exist, both coping with pain through the regulation of emotion and psychotherapeutic intervention, which not only helps patients in coping with the disease, but also aimed at improving the overall adaptation of the patient. It includes techniques of relaxation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and biofeedback therapy. Current data about the efficacy of the additional correcting therapies for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, both emerging and common ones, are discussed in the review.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia S. Saif ◽  
Nagwa N. Hegazy ◽  
Enas S. Zahran

Background: Among rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA), general disease activity is well regulated by diseasemodifying anti-rheumatic medications (DMARDS), but sometimes local inflammation still persists among a few joints. Adjuvant modern molecular interventions as Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) with a suggested down regulating effect on inflammatory mediators has a proven effect in management of RA. We aim to evaluate the therapeutic effect of intra-articular PRP versus steroid in RA patients and their impact on inflammatory cytokines IL1B , TNF α, local joint inflammation, disease activity and quality of life (QL). Methods: Open labeled parallel randomized control clinical trial was carried out on 60 RA patients randomly divided into 2 groups, Group 1: included 30 patients received 3 intra-articular injections of PRP at monthly interval, Group 2: included 30 patients received single intra-articular injection of steroid. They were subjected to clinical, laboratory, serum IL1B and TNF α assessment at baseline and at 3, 6 months post injection. Results: Patients of both groups showed improvements in their scores of evaluating tools at 3months post injection and this improvement was persistent in the PRP group up to 6 months post injection while it was continued only for 3 months in the steroid group. Conclusions: PRP is a safe, effective and useful therapy in treating RA patients who had insufficient response and persistent pain and inflammation in just one or two joints through its down regulating effect on inflammatory cytokines IL1B, TNF α with subsequent improvement of local joint inflammation, disease activity and QL.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1011.2-1011
Author(s):  
Y. Olyunin ◽  
V. Rybakova ◽  
E. Likhacheva ◽  
E. Nasonov

Background:The patient-reported outcomes are important components of quantitative methods of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) activity assessment which are used to choose the appropriate drug therapy. The value of these parameters can be significantly affected not only by the inflammatory process, but also by the psychological characteristics of the patient and, in particular, by hardiness [1].Objectives:To study the relationship between psychological factors and signs of RA activity.Methods:Patients with RA who met the EULAR/ACR 2010 criteria, and observed at the V. A. Nasonova Research Institute of Rheumatology were included. Clinical examination was performed including patient global assessment (PGA), physician global assessment (PhGA), pain measurement on a visual analog scale, tender joint count (TJC), swollen joint count (SJC). The functional status was determined by HAQ, the quality of life – by SF-36 EQ-5D, the nature of pain – by painDETECT, the presence of anxiety and depression – by HADS. Patients also completed Hardiness Survey questionnaire to assess hardiness (HDS) and 3 components of the HDS – commitment (CMT), control (CT) and challenge (CLN). Disease activity was evaluated with DAS28, CDAI, and RAPID3. All patients signed informed consent to participate in the study. Analysis of the data was performed using Spearman’s rank test, Fisher exact test, qui-square and t-tests.Results:85 patients with RA were included. There were 69 women and 16 men. Mean age was 56.7±13.1 years, disease duration – 7.6±2.7 years. 72 patients were positive for rheumatoid factor, 75 – for anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody. CDAI showed high activity in 15, moderate – in 37, low – in 30, and remission in 3 patients, DAS 28 – in 10, 55, 12, and 8, and RAPID3 – in 24, 25, 15, and 21, respectively. 24 patients had subclinically or clinically expressed anxiety and 15 –subclinically or clinically expressed depression (≥8 according to HADS). In 31 patients, the painDETECT questionnaire revealed possible or probable neuropathic pain. Mean HDS was 84.8±21.7, CMT – 38.9±9.2, CT – 29.4±8.6, CLN – 17.3±7.1. These values were comparable with the corresponding population data for this age group. There was a significant inverse correlation between HDS and RA activity measures, including SJC, TJC, DAS28 (p<0.05), pain, PGA, PhGA, CDAI, RAPID3, and HAQ (p<0.01). In addition, HDS and all its components positively correlated with quality of life, assessed by SF-36 and EQ-5D (p<0.01). In patients with subclinically and clinically expressed anxiety and depression, HDS, CMT, and CT were significantly lower than in patients without anxiety and depression (p<0.01), while the values of CLN in these groups did not differ significantly.Conclusion:The results of the present study suggest that low HDS may be one of the significant factors determining RA activity level because it does not allow patients to adapt adequately to a stressful situation produced by the disease.References:[1]Maddi SR. Am Psychol. 2008 Sep;63(6):563-4.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 929.1-930
Author(s):  
Y. M. Pers ◽  
V. Valsecchi ◽  
T. Mura ◽  
S. Aouinti ◽  
N. Filippi ◽  
...  

Background:Telemedicine has found wider application in chronic diseases for encouraging tight home-monitoring in order to improve patients’ outcome (Smolen et al. 2017).In previous studies, a high feasibility and high patient-satisfaction rate was found as well as the evidence for a superior or equal effectiveness of telemedicine compared to the standard face-to-face approach, however the results were weakened by some methodological biases and wide heterogeneity of interventions, thus preventing to draw definitive conclusions (Piga et al. 2017; Najm, Gossec, et al. 2019).Objectives:In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), telemedicine may allow a tight control of disease activity while reducing hospital visits. We developed a smartphone application connected with a physician’s interface to monitor RA patients. We aimed to assess the performance of this e-Health solution in comparison with routine practice in the management of patients with RA.Methods:A 6-month pragmatic, randomized, controlled, prospective, clinical trial was conducted in RA patients with high to moderate disease activity starting a new Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drug (DMARD) therapy. Two groups were established: “connected monitoring” and “conventional monitoring”. The primary outcome was the number of physical visits between baseline and 6 months. Secondary outcomes included adherence, satisfaction, changes in clinical, functional, and health status scores (SF-12).Results:Of the 94 randomized patients, 89 completed study: 44 in the “conventional monitoring” arm and 45 in the “connected monitoring” arm. The total number of physical visits between baseline and 6 month was significantly lower in the “connected monitoring” group (0.42 ± 0.58 versus 1.93 ± 0.55; p<0.05). No differences between groups were observed in the clinical and functional scores. A better quality of life for SF-12 subscores (Role-Physical, Social-Functioning and Role-Emotional) were found in the “connected monitoring” group.Conclusion:According to our results, a connected monitoring reduces the number of physical visits while maintaining a tight control of disease activity and improving quality of life in patients with RA starting a new treatment.References:[1] Najm, Aurelie, Laure Gossec, Catherine Weill, David Benoist, Francis Berenbaum, and Elena Nikiphorou. 2019. “Mobile Health Apps for Self-Management of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases: Systematic Literature Review.”JMIR MHealth and UHealth7 (11): e14730.https://doi.org/10.2196/14730.[2] Piga, Matteo, Ignazio Cangemi, Alessandro Mathieu, and Alberto Cauli. 2017. “Telemedicine for Patients with Rheumatic Diseases: Systematic Review and Proposal for Research Agenda.”Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism47 (1): 121–28.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2017.03.014.[3] Smolen, Josef S, Robert Landewe, Johannes Bijlsma, Gerd Burmester, Katerina Chatzidionysiou, Maxime Dougados, Jackie Nam, et al. 2017. “EULAR Recommendations for the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis with Synthetic and Biological Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs: 2016 Update.”Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases76 (6): 960–77.https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210715.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


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