A personality characteristic, somatic absorption, and the perception of somatic symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis...

This study tested the hypothesis that a personality trait, somatic absorption, is correlated with symptom severity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Patients completed self-report questionnaires assessing intensity of their RA symptoms, somatic absorption, and psychiatric distress. Disease activity and severity were measured through erythrocyte sedimentation rate, joint examination, and aggressiveness of medication regimen. We examined the cross-sectional association between somatic absorption and RA symptoms using multivariable regression analyses.

Somatic absorption was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with an overall measure of RA symptoms, and this association persisted after taking into account demographic data, disease severity, and extent of psychological distress. Somatic absorption was more closely associated with constitutional symptoms than with localized, articular symptoms of arthritis. Somatic symptoms were also independently associated with psychiatric distress (p < 0.001). Psychiatric distress was a more powerful predictor of extraarticular or constitutional symptoms than were measures of arthritis activity and severity.

Our findings suggest that there may be a role for psychological intervention in the management of extraarticular symptoms of RA as these symptoms are relatively more influenced by a personality characteristic than the localized articular symptoms of the disease.