Effects of stress management on clinical outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis

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Abstract
Objective. To examine the effects of stress-management training on clinical outcomes in persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods. Patients with RA (n = 141) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a stress management group, an attention control group, or a standard care control group. The stress management and the attention control groups received a 10-w eek intervention followed by an additional 15-m onth maintenance phase. Results. The stress management group showed statistically significant improvements on measures of helplessness, self-efficacy, coping, pain, and health status. Selected beneficial effects were still detectable at the 15-m onth followup evaluation. Conclusion. The data indicated that stress management interventions are capable of producing important clinical benefits for persons with RA.