THE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL THERAPY ON IMPROVING THE PSYCHOEMOTIONAL STATE OF PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Abstract

The article presents data on the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis. It has been established that the high incidence of the disease among people of working age and the rapid disability of patients represent a serious medical and social problem and cause huge economic costs. It has been shown that the chronic, progressive process of the disease leads to the formation of psycho-emotional disorders in patients, which negatively affect the quality of their lives. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of physical therapy on the psychoemotional state of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Material and methods: 188 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were examined, including 156 women (83 %) and 32 men (17 %), with an average age of 45 years. All patients were randomly assigned to the control (n = 92) and intervention (n = 96) groups. In order to assess the effectiveness of physical therapy on the psychoemotional state of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, we conducted a questionnaire using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results. The rehabilitation techniques included therapeutic exercises, therapeutic massage, self-massage, orthotics, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, kinesiotaping, and mechanotherapy. Psychological support was provided to patients, including autogenic training and positive psychotherapy. The initial examination showed that the majority of patients with rheumatoid arthritis have psycho-emotional disorders of anxiety and depression – 86 %, which confirms the data of various authors. The presented results of anxiety and depressive syndrome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis 3 months after the start of physical therapy/rehabilitation showed a decrease in the level of anxiety and depression according to the HADS scale in the study groups. At the same time, in patients of the main group, the changes were more pronounced than in patients of the control group, where these indicators were significantly higher. The analysis of the indicators of anxiety and depression syndrome according to the HADS questionnaire after 6 months of rehabilitation measures showed a significant improvement in the main group patients. Thus, the absence of anxiety symptoms was observed in a much larger number of patients in the main group – 62.5 % of patients, with no symptoms of depression – 68.7 % of patients; in the control group, there were much fewer such cases: 41.3 % of patients with no anxiety symptoms, and 53.3 % of patients with no symptoms of depression. Conclusions. The effectiveness of the developed technology of rehabilitation measures is confirmed by a significant improvement in the HADS scale in patients of the main group, in contrast to the control group, which was significantly worse.