Psychotherapy May Help People With Lupus Cope with Stress
Psychotherapy helps cut the incidence of psychological woes in patients with lupus who have high levels of daily stress, a new study finds. The treatment also helps these patients improve and maintain their quality of life, according to a new Spanish study. The research included 45 patients randomly assigned to a control group or to a therapy group. Each received 10 weekly sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). By the end of the study, the patients in the therapy group had significantly reduced levels of depression, anxiety and daily stress — along with significant improvement in quality of life — compared to those in the control group.
However, the patients in the therapy group didn’t show any significant reduction in lupus disease activity, said the Spanish researchers. The study was led by N. Navarrete-Navarrete of the University Hospital Virgen de Las Nieves, and was recently published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. (source ethiopianreview.com)
This is an actual abstract of the study
Efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of chronic stress in patients with lupus erythematosus: a randomized controlled trial.
Chronic stress worsens the quality of life (QOL) of lupus patients by affecting their physical and psychological status. The effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioural intervention in a group of patients with lupus and high levels of daily stress was investigated. METHODS: Forty-five patients with lupus and high levels of daily stress were randomly assigned to a control group (CG) or a therapy group (TG); they received cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which consisted of ten consecutive weekly sessions. The following variables were evaluated at baseline and at 3, 9 and 15 months: (1) stress, anxiety, depression, (2) Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index, somatic symptoms, number of flares, (3) anti-nDNA antibodies, complement fractions C3 and C4 and (4) QOL. A multivariate analysis of repeated measures and various analyses of variance were carried out. RESULTS: We found a significant reduction in the level of depression, anxiety and daily stress in the TG compared to the CG and a significant improvement in QOL and somatic symptoms in the TG throughout the entire follow-up period. We did not find any significant changes in the immunological parameters. CONCLUSIONS: CBT is effective in dealing with patients suffering from lupus and high levels of daily stress as it significantly reduces the incidence of psychological disorders associated with lupus and improves and maintains patients’ QOL, despite there being no significant reduction in the disease activity index. (source nih.gov)
