A systematic review of psychosocial therapies for children with rheumatic diseases

Abstract

Background: To assess the quality of evidence for the effects of psychosocial therapies on pain and function in children with rheumatic diseases. Methods: We conducted a literature search of MEDLINE and PsycINFO for randomized clinical trials of psychosocial interventions for pain and disability in children with rheumatic diseases from January 1969 to September 2015. Studies with a sample size less than 10 subjects were excluded. Study quality was assessed using the Jadad score. Results: Five articles met inclusion criteria, for a total of 229 patients, aged 5 to 18 years. Two studies included children with fibromyalgia. Three studies included children with juvenile arthritis. Neither study in fibromyalgia reported the statistical significance of immediate between-group pre-post changes in functioning or pain. One study examining the effects of an internet-based psychosocial intervention in children with juvenile arthritis reported significant differences in post-intervention pain scores (p = 0.03). However, 2 studies did not show improvements in pain scores among children with juvenile arthritis treated with psychosocial interventions vs. a wait-list control or vs. an active control (massage). No studies reported significant between-group differences for functional outcomes in children with juvenile arthritis. Conclusions: The available data were limited by the scarcity of randomized trials. Definite conclusions about the immediate effect of psychosocial interventions on pain and function in children with fibromyalgia could not be made because between-group comparisons of post-treatment change scores were not reported. For children with juvenile inflammatory arthritis, results of between-group comparisons for pain differed across studies, and analyses examining disability revealed no significant differences between groups.

Mapping the evidence and gaps of interventions for pediatric chronic pain to inform policy, research, and practice: A systematic review and quality assessment of systematic reviews

“…Most reviews (n = 19; 40.4%) included variations of mixed chronic pain populations (e.g., abdominal pain, headaches or migraines, widespread pain/fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, neuropathic pain, sickle cell disease, cancer pain, back pain, and/or pelvic pain). 8,37,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] Reviews focused on single populations most frequently examined abdominal pain (n = 10; 21.3%), 10,35,39,40,57,[59][60][61]77,78 headaches or migraines (n = 5; 10.6%), [62][63][64][65][66] rheumatological conditions (e.g., juvenile idiopathic arthritis, lupus; n = 4; 8.5%), [67][68][69][70] cancer-related pain (n = 3; 6.4%), [71][72][73] or sickle cell disease (n = 2; 4.3%). 74,75 Single reviews focused on patellar tendon pain/Osgood-Schlatter's (n = 1; 2.1%), 76 cerebral palsy (n = 1; 2.1%), …”

The View From the Inside: Positionality and Insider Research

“…As a young adult with inflammatory arthritis, I am particularly interested in the impacts of musculoskeletal conditions on working-age populations. There is a large body of research conducted with pediatric populations with arthritis (Cartwright et al, 2015;Cohen et al, 2017;Soriano LeBovidge et al, 2003) as well as with older adults with arthritis (Focht et al, 2017;Havens et al, 2017;Song et al, 2006). However, there is a paucity of research dedicated to working-age populations.…”

Development and validation of the CAREGIVERS questionnaire: multi-assessing the impact of juvenile idiopathic arthritis on caregivers

“…There is a lack of information about programs based on emotional health of the caregiver or specific data on the relationship of caregiver problems and final outcome of JIA [35][36][37]. However, interventions and social supporting programs to patient and their caregivers results in development of positive coping mechanisms, improving stress management and decreasing anxiety and depression [1,8,37]. Studies on this field will be benefited with this instrument because it could provide a lot of important information with a simple evaluation.…”

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