Psychological Aspects of Rheumatoid Arthritis

1 Introduction.- Rheumatoid Arthritis.- Psychological Issues in Rheumatoid Arthritis.- Plan of the Book.- 2 Psychological Distress in Rheumatoid Arthritis.- Incidence and Nature of Distress.- Explaining Psychological Distress in Rheumatoid Arthritis — Response or Antecedent?.- Predictors of Psychological Distress in Rheumatoid Arthritis.- Positive Reactions to Illness.- 3 Compliance with Medical Advice.- Incidence of Non-Compliance.- Problems with Compliance Research.- Factors Associated with Compliance.- Patient Knowledge.- 4 Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Limitations of Research on Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Why Do People Turn To Unorthodox Treatments?.- The Dimensionality of Unorthodox Treatment Use.- 5 Pilot Study 1 — An Exploration of Psychological Issues in Rheumatoid Arthritis.- Method.- Results and Discussion.- 6 Patients’ Knowledge and Misconceptions about their Illness.- Pilot Study 2.- Conclusions.- Postal Questionnaire Study.- 7 Methodology of the Main Correlational Study.- Subjects.- Interview Schedule.- Questionnaires.- Statistical Analyses.- 8 Psychological Distress — Results and Discussion.- Incidence, Severity and Nature of Psychological Distress.- The Dimensionality of Distress.- Relationship of Adjustment and Demographic Variables.- Disease Variables and Adjustment.- Control and Adjustment.- Illness Knowledge and Adjustment.- Feelings about Conventional Medical Treatment and Adjustment.- Positive Effects of Illness.- Summary.- 9 Compliance with Conventional Medical Treatment — Results and Discussion.- Incidence of Non-Compliance.- The Dimensionality of Compliance.- Pain Locus of Control and Compliance.- Psychological Adjustment and Compliance.- Demographic Variables and Compliance.- Illness Knowledge, Health Beliefs and Compliance.- Summary.- 10Use of Unorthodox Treatments — Results and Discussion.- Amount and Type of Use.- The Reasons Patients Gave for Trying Unorthodox Treatments.- The Dimensionality of Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Disease Variables and Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Psychological Distress and Use of Unorthodox Treatments.- Positive Effects of Illness and Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Pain Locus of Control and Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Conventional Medical Treatment and Unorthodox Treatment Use.- The Sophistication Hypothesis of Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Demographic Variables and Unorthodox Treatment Use.- Summary.- 11 Conclusions.- References.