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A biopsychosocial model of pain and depression in rheumatoid arthritis: a 12-month longitudinal study
T Covic1, B Adamson, D Spencer
1School of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. tcovic@csu.edu.au
Objective:
To cross-validate a biopsychosocial model using physical disability, helplessness and passive coping to predict depression and pain in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods:
Clinical and psychological measures were collected from 157 RA patients at three time points over a period of 12 months. Path analysis was used for cross-sectional and longitudinal prediction of depression and pain.
Results:
Helplessness and passive coping were found to be significant mediators of the relationship between the physical disability and future depression and pain. Cross-sectionally, the predictive model could account for 52-94% of the variance of pain and 37-71% of the variance of depression. Longitudinally, the predictive model could explain 29-43% of the variance of pain and 21-33% of the variance of depression.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that physical disability, helplessness and passive coping have a significant impact on the levels of pain and depression experienced by RA patients.
