• Posted February 19, 2025

Arthritis Sufferers Don't Get The Mental Health Support They Need, Study Says

People with inflammatory arthritis run a substantially increased risk for mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

But these mental health concerns aren’t being adequately addressed by doctors, a new study suggests.

Arthritis patients are about as likely to receive either medication or therapy for a mood disorder as people without arthritis, despite their increased risk for depression and anxiety, researchers reported recently in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

“As mental health often receives less attention, and it's well-documented that mental health issues are frequently undertreated, these findings are not necessarily surprising,” senior researcher Mary De Vera, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, told Healio, a website for health care professionals.

“However, we were somewhat surprised with findings of no meaningful difference between inflammatory arthritis and inflammatory arthritis-free controls with respect to minimally adequate mental health treatment for depression and anxiety, as we had hypothesized that patients with IA may receive more mental health care, given their frequent contacts with the health care system, which may facilitate access,” De Vera added.

For the study, researchers studied nearly 7,000 arthritis patients with depression and 3,700 with anxiety, comparing their mental health care to similar people who didn’t have arthritis.

Results showed that about 51% of patients with inflammatory arthritis had been prescribed medication for depression, compared to 48% of people without arthritis.

About 20% received therapy for anxiety whether or not they had arthritis.

Likewise, people suffering from anxiety received mental health care at about the same rate whether or not they had arthritis, people said.

However, arthritis patients with anxiety were more likely to require hospitalization for their mood disorder than those without arthritis, results show.

“Although the physical effects of arthritis are well-known and often devastating, the impact on mental health has received far less attention,” De Vera said.

The inflammation associated with arthritis is known to affect major organs within the body, including the brain, researchers said in background notes.

“This is a gap that needs to be addressed given the complex relationship between arthritis and psychiatric conditions, with inflammation playing a key underlying role,” De Vera concluded.

More information

The Arthritis Foundation has more on arthritis and mental health.

SOURCES: Arthritis Research & Therapy, Jan. 21, 2025; Healio, media report, Feb. 13, 2025