Learned helplessness in systemic lupus erythematosus: analysis using the rheumatology attitudes index

Abstract

The Rheumatology Attitudes Index (RAI) was administered to 138 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) to determine its reliability and to examine the construct of learned belplessness in patients with this disease. The internal consistency of the RAI was In addition, these data suggest that the learned helplessness construct might be relevant to the outcomes of morbidity and mortality in patients with SLE.Psychological abnormalities and psychosocial dysfunction have been described in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (1-6). Previous stud-

Learned helplessness and its associations with illness perception, depression and anxiety among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

“…our findings are in accordance with the theoretical framework of lH, as well as with results obtained in other studies involving patients with rheumatic diseases [2,6,15]. a significant relationship between distress and lH was also noted in patients with Sle by engle et al [5]. Similar associations between anxiety and depression, measured using HadS, and learned helplessness among patients with rheumatoid arthritis were also noted by lindroth et al [3].…”

“…moldovan et al [15] reported that lH was related to illness symptoms and consequences, such as pain severity and self-reported general health status. engle et al [5] also noted that more helpless patients experienced more pain and more difficulties in daily activities as a consequence of the illness. Greater functional impairment was also noted among high helpless patients with Sle in comparison with low helpless individuals by Stein et al [16].…”

“…the higher the score, the higher the level of lH [6]. the usefulness of rHi among patients with rheumatic diseases has been proven in several studies [4][5][6]. the reliability of the Polish version of rHi was established in a group of 128 rheumatology patients.…”

“…it has been proven that learned helplessness determines patients' behaviors when facing a chronic disease, since they feel they have little control over it and experience no hope in fighting the symptoms of the illness, and thus a passive coping style may occur [2,4,5]. research concerning lH among patients with rheumatologic diseases revealed that learned helplessness is connected with a poorer quality of life and functional impairment, more severe physical symptoms and higher distress and may be related to noncompliance, poorer health and increased morbidity and mortality [2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Reply

“…However, even with this conservative approach, the results are striking. Third, they raise the possibility that, despite the fact that we found no ethnic difference in CRP concentrations (median 3 mg/liter [interquartile range [3][4][5][6][7] in Caucasians compared with 4 mg/liter [interquartile range [3][4][5][6][7] in nonCaucasians; P ϭ 0.20), our finding of higher CRP concentrations in obese patients could merely reflect a greater proportion of non-Caucasians in the overweight and obese groups, because some studies have shown higher concentrations of CRP in African Americans. This is not the case; when race (categorized as Caucasian and non-Caucasian) was included in the model, the association between BMI and CRP remained significant (P Ͻ 0.001 for the unadjusted and all adjusted models).…”