Positive Health Online

Abstract

JACOBS and colleagues, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands, g.dekruyf@AZU.nl, analysed the characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who make use of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) .

Background

Methodology

262 randomly chosen patients with RA filled out self- assessment health status and pain questionnaires . Differences between the group of patients making use of both CAM and conventional treatment (n=52) and the group who relied only on conventional treatment prescribed by their rheumatologists (n=210) were explored with regard to: demographic characteristics; duration of RA; levels of physical, psychological and social functioning; and pain-coping behaviour.

Results

Females used CAM more often than males. Those who used CAM were younger than those who did not. No differences were found between the two groups with respect to: duration of RA; physical, psychological or social functioning; or pain coping. However, the perceived impact of RA on several domains of life was higher among CAM users . The groups did not differ in terms of medical consumption, except that CAM users visited medical specialists for RA-related complaints less than those who relied solely on conventional treatments.

Conclusion

The higher impact of RA, in the absence of worse disease, perceived by CAM users in several domains of life (especially psychosocial functioning ) could be the reason they use CAM. This suggests that CAM cannot be substituted by additional conventional treatment prescribed by the rheumatologist, but rather by psychosocial intervention .

References

Jacobs JWG et al. Why do patients with rheumatoid arthritis use alternative treatments? Clinical Rheumatology 20 (3): 192-6. 2001.