Upswings in Cheerful Mood and Disease Activity in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Hugo Carretero-Dios; Alejandro Escudero-Contreras; Pilar Font-Ugalde; Desireé Ruiz-Vilchez; Carlos J. Delgado-Domínguez; Eduardo Collantes-Estevez
- Source
- International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 23:606-610
- Subject
- Adult
Male
Clinical variables
Emotions
Happiness
050109 social psychology
Disease
Severity of Illness Index
Arthritis, Rheumatoid
Disease activity
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
In patient
Applied Psychology
030203 arthritis & rheumatology
business.industry
05 social sciences
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Health psychology
C-Reactive Protein
Cross-Sectional Studies
Mood
Rheumatoid arthritis
Trait
Female
business
Clinical psychology
- Language
- ISSN
- 1532-7558
1070-5503
The influence of a cheerful mood on disease activity levels in rheumatoid arthritis is investigated in this cross-sectional study. State cheerfulness (i.e., how individuals feel at the time of the assessment) and trait cheerfulness (i.e., how individuals usually feel) were assessed at the same time as the clinical indicators of disease activity and just before measuring patient-reported disease activity with the Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28). State cheerfulness contributed significantly to the variance in the DAS-28 scores that was not accounted for by trait cheerfulness or demographic or clinical variables. Higher state cheerfulness was associated with lower values of self-reported disease activity and C-reactive protein. The patient-reported disease activity was not uniquely caused by the clinical indicators of disease, but it also depended on patients’ cheerful mood at the moment of assessment. The findings suggest interesting possibilities for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis.