The patient's journey: rheumatoid arthritis

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7521.887

BMJ 2005;331:887-889 (15 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7521.887

Clinical review

The patient's journey: rheumatoid arthritis

Carol Simpson, patient¹, Chloe Franks, patient¹, Catherine Morrison, clinical nurse specialist in rheumatology¹, Heidi Lempp, senior qualitative researcher²

¹ Department of Rheumatology, King's College Hospital NHS Trust, London SE5 9RS, ² Academic Department of Rheumatology, King's College London School of Medicine at Guy's, King's College, and St Thomas Hospitals, London SE5 9RJ

Correspondence to: H Lempp heidi.k.lempp@kcl.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The map

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic disorder of disturbedimmunity that affects about 1% of adults in the United Kingdom.It typically develops in middle or late life and is three timesmore common in women than it is in men. It is characterisedby joint pain, swelling, and stiffness, particularly of thesmall joints of the hands and feet. Its onset varies betweengradual and acute. The classic pathological features includeinflammation in the synovial lining joints and tendon sheaths.Patients feel sore, especially in the morning. Its natural courseis variable, with disease severity changing over time, althoughin many patients there is increasing joint damage and functionaldisability. From the perspective of patients, pain, reducedmobility, fatigue, and psychological effects, such as depression,are the dominant concerns. In contrast, clinicians generallyfocus on measurable disease activity, along with radiographicallyidentifiable progressive joint damage. They aim to . . . [Full text of this article]

The good news

The bad news

Travelling alone

Companions on the journey

Ways of coping

What helps along the way?

Journey's end

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