Nonpharmacological Treatment in Systemic Sclerosis

Abstract

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare, severe connective tissue disease without available universal treatment. Organ involvement increases the mortality of this disease; nevertheless, skin involvement and the involvement of muscles and joints lead to loss of function, disability, and reduced quality of life.Our experience and data from the literature suggest that physical activity interventions are an essential and integral part of treatment of patients with SSc. The limitation on most of the small number of existing studies aimed at nonpharmacological treatment for patients with SSc includes suboptimal methodological quality, low number of patients, lack of a control group or monitoring (follow-up), and short-term intervention.The purpose of this chapter was to introduce the few studies that have examined this issue and to show that nonpharmacological therapy for diseases such as systemic sclerosis has been the focus of some research teams in recent years-the studies of which have demonstrated safety and benefits of these approaches.