title: Relationship between appearance and psychological distress in rheumatic diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between physical appearance concerns and psychological distress in patients with rheumatic diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 60 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 44 with chronic rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and 53 with recent-onset RA were evaluated for levels of appearance concern and a range of illness-specific measures to determine how these demographic and clinical variables were related to the dependent variable psychological distress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, we found that both appearance concerns and levels of disability were predictive of depression in patients with RA. In the SLE sample, physical disability was predictive of depression when appearance concerns were not included in the analysis. However, disability did not predict depression when appearance concerns were entered into the analysis. This indicates that appearance concerns mediated the relationship between disability and depression in SLE. There was no association between appearance concerns and anxiety in either sample.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that appearance concerns are strongly related to depression in patients with rheumatic diseases and should be routinely assessed.
authors.affiliation: The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Sally M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Monaghan
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Denton
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schrieber
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sensky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis