Overweight and obese patients with osteoarthritis (OA) experience more OA pain and disability than patients who are not overweight. This study examined the long-term efficacy of a combined pain coping skills training (PCST) and lifestyle behavioral weight management (BWM) intervention in overweight and obese OA patients. Patients (N=232) were randomized to a 6-month program of: 1) PCST + BWM; 2) PCST-only; 3) BWM-only; or 4) standard care control. Assessments of pain, physical disability (Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales [AIMS] physical disability, stiffness, activity, and gait), psychological disability (AIMS psychological disability, pain catastrophizing, arthritis self-efficacy, weight self-efficacy), and body weight were collected at four time points (pretreatment, post-treatment, and 6 months and 12 months after the completion of treatment). Patients randomized to PCST+ BWM demonstrated significantly better treatment outcomes (average of all three post-treatment values) in terms of pain, physical disability, stiffness, activity, weight self-efficacy, and weight when compared to the other three conditions (p’s <.05). PCST+BWM also did significantly better than at least one of the other conditions (i.e., PCST-only, BWM-only, or standard care) in terms of psychological disability, pain catastrophizing, and arthritis self-efficacy. Interventions teaching overweight and obese OA patients pain coping skills and weight management simultaneously may provide the more comprehensive long-term benefits.
Emotional disclosure by writing or talking about stressful life experiences improves health status in non-clinical populations, but its success in clinical populations, particularly rheumatoid arthritis (RA), has been mixed. In this randomized, controlled trial, we attempted to increase the efficacy of emotional disclosure by having a trained clinician help patients emotionally disclose and process stressful experiences. We randomized 98 adults with RA to one of four conditions: (a) private verbal emotional disclosure; (b) clinician-assisted verbal emotional disclosure; (c) arthritis information control (all of which engaged in four, 30-min laboratory sessions); or (d) no-treatment, standard care only control group. Outcome measures (pain, disability, affect, stress) were assessed at baseline, 2 months following treatment (2-month follow-up), and at 5-month, and 15-month follow-ups. A manipulation check demonstrated that, as expected, both types of emotional disclosure led to immediate (post-session) increases in negative affect compared with arthritis information. Outcome analyses at all three follow-ups revealed no clear pattern of effects for either clinician-assisted or private emotional disclosure compared with the two control groups. There were some benefits in terms of a reduction in pain behavior with private disclosure vs. clinician-assisted disclosure at the 2-month follow-up, but no other significant between group differences. We conclude that verbal emotional disclosure about stressful experiences, whether conducted privately or assisted by a clinician, has little or no benefit for people with RA.
Support is provided for the notion that ER use for children with SCD may be independent of disease severity and predicted by caregivers' psychological adjustment and children's peer adjustment.
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