: This review highlights the issue of psychosomatic conditions in rheumatoid arthritis, paying a special attention to new researches and trends in this field. Emerging concepts in all the major parts of the problem are covered consecutively, from the impact of chronic musculoskeletal pain on emotional state to disease influence over quality of life, socio-psychological, and interpersonal relationships. Chronic pain is closely related to emotional responses and coping ability, with pronounced positive effect of psychotherapeutic interventions, family and social support on it. Psychosexual disorders, anxiety, depression also commonly coexist with rheumatoid arthritis, leading to further decrease of quality of life, low compliance, and high suicide risk. Influence of psychosomatic conditions on overall treatment effect is usually underestimated by rheumatologists and general practitioners. Psychosomatic considerations are of great importance for up-to-date management of rheumatoid arthritis, as they strongly influence quality of life, compliance, and thereby disease outcomes. Two major approaches of psychological rehabilitation exist, both coping with pain through regulation of emotion and psychotherapeutic intervention, which not only helps patients in coping with the disease, but also aimed at improving the overall adaptation of the patient. It includes techniques of relaxation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and biofeedback therapy. Current data about efficacy of the additional correcting therapies for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, both emerging and common ones, are discussed in the review.

Objectives Our aim was to study the phenomenon of alexithymia – a special mental quality of psychosomatic personality in systemic sclerosis patients. Methods We observed 54 patients suffering from systemic sclerosis (SS) using Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). The majority of patients were women (94, 4%) of 45, 59 ± 1, 65 years in average. Average duration of the disease was 4, 42 ± 0, 44 years. 1st degree of SS activity has been diagnosed in 12 (22, 2%) patients, 2nd degree - in 37 (68, 5%) and 3rd degree - in 5 (9, 3%) patients. The chronic clinical course of the disease was observed in 16 (29, 6%) patients, subacute course of the disease - in 35 (64, 8%) and acute course - in 3 (5, 5%) patients. Results The data we obtained shows evidence of high level of alexithymia in SS patients (77,35 ± 1,8 test scores). Besides the results of our research, alexithymia was seen to play a certain role in the pathogenesis of psychosomatic disturbances in SS. Alexithymia doesn’t depend on gender and age of patients. The clinical course and activity of the disease on the one hand, reliably has a negative correlation between alexithymia expression and educational level of patients (r=-0,37 at p=0,028). Internality in the relation to disease (r=-0,64 at p=0,031), was also reliably in a direct correlation with “Jet formations” mechanism of psychological defense (r=0,58 at p=0,023) which was revealed on the other hand. Conclusions Thus, there are certain correlations between alexithymia development and some clinical and psychological characteristics of SS patients. Understanding the correlations is important in order to organize preventive psychological interventions with the purpose to correct alexithymic traits. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

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GMN: Georgian Medical News is peer-reviewed, published monthly journal committed to promoting the science and art of medicine and the betterment of public health, published by the GMN Editorial Board and The International Academy of Sciences, Education, Industry and Arts (U.S.A.) since 1994. GMN carries original scientific articles on medicine, biology and pharmacy, which are of experimental, theoretical and practical character; publishes original research, reviews, commentaries, editorials, essays, medical news, and correspondence in English and Russian. GMN is indexed in MEDLINE, SCOPUS, PubMed and VINITI Russian Academy of Sciences. The full text content is available through EBSCO databases. GMN: Медицинские новости Грузии-ежемесячный рецензируе мый научный журнал, издаётся Редакционной коллегией и Международной академией наук, образования, искусств и естествознания (IASEIA) США с 1994 года на русском и английском языках в целях поддержки медицинской науки и улучшения здравоохранения. В журнале публикуются оригинальные научные статьи в области медицины, биологии и фармации, статьи обзорного характера, научные сообщения, новости медицины и здравоохранения. Журнал индексируется в MEDLINE, отражён в базе данных SCOPUS, PubMed и ВИНИТИ РАН. Полнотекстовые статьи журнала доступны через БД EBSCO. GMN: Georgian Medical News-saqarTvelos samedicino siaxleni-aris yovelTviuri samecniero samedicino recenzirebadi Jurnali, gamoicema 1994 wlidan, warmoadgens saredaqcio kolegiisa da aSS-is mecnierebis, ganaTlebis, industriis, xelovnebisa da bunebismetyvelebis saerTaSoriso akademiis erTobliv gamocemas. GMN-Si rusul da inglisur enebze qveyndeba eqsperimentuli, Teoriuli da praqtikuli xasiaTis originaluri samecniero statiebi medicinis, biologiisa da farmaciis sferoSi, mimoxilviTi xasiaTis statiebi. Jurnali indeqsirebulia MEDLINE-is saerTaSoriso sistemaSi, asaxulia SCOPUS-is, PubMed-is da ВИНИТИ РАН-is monacemTa bazebSi. statiebis sruli teqsti xelmisawvdomia EBSCO-s monacemTa bazebidan. МЕДИЦИНСКИЕ НОВОСТИ ГРУЗИИ Ежемесячный совместный грузино-американский научный электронно-печатный журнал Агентства медицинской информации Ассоциации деловой прессы Грузии, Академии медицинских наук Грузии, Международной академии наук, индустрии, образования и искусств США. Издается с 1994 г., распространяется в СНГ, ЕС и США НАУЧНЫЙ РЕДАКТОР

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