Background: Depression is thought to be common comorbidity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is one of the most frequent chronic inflammatory diseases.

Objectives: This study aimed to screen for depression in RA patients, and study its relation to social and clinical parameters, as well as disease activity.

Methods: Single-center cross-sectional study, involving patients with RA, according to ACR/EULAR criteria 2010, using the original Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) as a screening tool for depression: measures of 0–9 indicated that a patient was not depressed, 10–18 indicated mild to moderate depression, 19–29 indicated moderate to severe depression and 30–63 indicated severe depression.

Results: Sixty-five patients were included (57 F / 8 M). The average age was 55 years [23-73]. The mean duration of the disease was 11.75 years [1-25]. Half of the patients had precarious socioeconomic conditions and no social security. Forty-two patients were unemployed. Seventeen percent of them experienced grief by losing a close family member. Both rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated peptides antibodies were positive in 83.1 % of cases. RA was erosive in 78.5% of cases, and deformed in 21.5 % of cases. Almost half of the patients (52.3 %) were followed for at least another chronic disease. Forty-eight percent of patients were on Methotrexate with an average weekly dose of 15.3 mg/week [10-22.5], 10% on Leflunomide, 10% on Sulfasalazine, and 45% on biotherapy. The analysis of BDI scores showed that 64.6 % of patients suffered from depression: mild to moderate in 35.4 % of cases, moderate to severe in 21.5% of cases and severe in 7.7% of cases. Depression was significantly associated with precarious socioeconomic conditions (p=0.018). A correlation between the BDI score and the Disease Activity Score (DAS28) as well as the Health Assessment Questionnaire was noted (p = 0.045 and p = 0.02, respectively). There were no statistically significant associations with the other studied data.

Conclusion: Depression was frequent among RA patients. Our study suggests that better control of the disease may reduce the incidence of depression within this group of patients.

REFERENCES:

[1]Beck, A.T., Ward, C., & Mendelson, M. (1961). “Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)”. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561-571.

Disclosure of Interests: None declared