Depression lowers pain threshold in psoriatic arthritis patients
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients with psoriatic arthritis who suffer from depression may experience higher levels of pain despite having similar amounts of inflammation as those without depression.
Depression in patients with PsA has been associated with reduced pain thresholds that can impact their ability to withstand lower levels of pain. Oftentimes patients with PsA who have depression experience similar lower percent body surface area, tender joint counts and swollen joint counts, but have been found to have higher swollen joint counts compared with patients without depression.
Healio spoke with Arthur Kavanaugh, MD, Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego Health, about the effects depression may have on patients with PsA.
Healio: How does depression affect the pain felt by patients with psoriatic arthritis?
It has been shown by rheumatology investigators around the world that psoriatic arthritis patients with depression report more pain than patients without depression, despite similar activity across other psoriatic arthritis activity outcomes (eg swollen joint count, skin psoriasis activity, etc.).
Healio: How can depression be an obstacle in the way of remission or low disease activity?
As depression impacts patient reported outcomes, it can make it harder to achieve goals such as remission and low disease activity.
Healio: Will a patient with depression perceive their PsA differently than a patient without depression? How?
That is hard to discern, but in general it seems psoriatic arthritis patients with depression report being more active across patient reported outcomes, or PROs, in RA, including patient assessment of pain, and patient assessment of overall disease activity.
Healio: How important is it that practitioners consider factors like depression when treating PsA or rheumatoid arthritis?
It is certainly important to consider; as rheumatologists are not all experts in assessing and treating depression, it is important to share care with mental health practitioners.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts