Help for thoughts and feelings raised exercise and eased low mood in rheumatoid arthritis.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The review pooled 27 studies of adults with rheumatoid arthritis from six countries, among them the USA and the Netherlands. The paper does not give how many people there were or their ages.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each study compared psychological help with usual care, a group that waited, or a group that got nothing. The help included education, therapy that challenges unhelpful thoughts and stress training, mostly given in groups. Sessions lasted 30 minutes to two and a half hours, and programmes ran from one week to six months.

3. 03

   What happened

   At the end, people exercised about one session a week more and had less low mood than the other groups. Help with more goal setting, planning, tracking and feedback eased low mood and anxiety more. The abstract says pain got better later on, but the paper's numbers do not show that.

What the review found

1. HelpedGoals

   Across five studies, arthritis lessons got people to exercise more at the end.

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 340 people · vs people who got usual care, a self-help book or nothing · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. HelpedOther outcomes

   Across 19 studies, psychological help eased low mood more at the end than the other group did.

   Pooled analysis of 19 studies with 1,062 people · vs people who got usual care or nothing · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. HelpedOther outcomes

   Help that used more goal setting, planning, tracking and feedback eased low mood more than help that used fewer.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Action: Track your progresstested
   • Rule: Write down when and wheretested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Pooled analysis of 19 studies · vs help with fewer of these parts · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. HelpedOther outcomes

   Help that used more goal setting, planning, tracking and feedback eased anxiety more than help that used fewer.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Action: Track your progresstested
   • Rule: Write down when and wheretested
   • Rule: Get feedback on your progresstested

   Pooled analysis of 11 studies · vs help with fewer of these parts · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source