Measurement of psychiatric disorder in rheumatoid arthritis.
In a detailed physical and psychiatric assessment of 80 patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis (RA) different instruments were used to measure psychiatric disorder. The prevalence of psychiatric disorder was 21% when assessed by the PSE/CATEGO programme and 24% according to RDC criteria, but these figures were nearly doubled if a lower threshold was used to define psychiatric disorder. This study demonstrates how symptoms directly attributable to arthritis may inflate the estimated prevalence of psychiatric disorder in RA and erroneously indicate a direct relationship between severity if RA and psychiatric disorder. In fact, the best prediction of psychiatric disorder resulted from using a combination of measures of social stress and severity of RA.
Creed
F
F
University Department of Psychiatry, Manchester Royal Infirmary, U.K.
Murphy
S
S
Jayson
M V
MV
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012803:Sick Role; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications