Abstract Objectives Anxiety and depression are associated with poorer outcomes for people with inflammatory rheumatological conditions (IRCs). A systematic review of psychosocial interventions to prevent anxiety and/or depression in people with long-term conditions was conducted. This analysis aimed to explore the effectiveness of such interventions in IRCs and the subsequent impact on condition and quality of life. Methods A systematic review examining psychosocial interventions to prevent anxiety and/or depression in people with IRCs. Studies reporting a psychosocial intervention for IRCs and no clinical diagnosis of anxiety or depression at baseline were included. Seven databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central, Web of Science Core Collection) were searched. Results 24,001 unique papers were identified, with 46 being included in the main review. Twelve of these focused on IRCs and are reported in this paper: 10 RCTs and 2 non-RCTs with 830 participants. Three categories of interventions were identified: psychological therapies (n = 5), exercise (n = 3) and educational programmes (n = 4). Eight studies reported a positive effect on anxiety and/or depression prevention. Three of these studies also reported an improvement in fatigue. Only one study reported a positive impact on pain outcomes. Only one study showed improvement in disease activity. Studies predominantly focused on depression outcomes; anxiety was rarely the primary focus. Studies generally scored very low/low certainty of evidence. Conclusions Offering psychological therapies may help prevent anxiety and/or depression in people with IRCs and may also lead to improvements in fatigue. Given the impact of mood and fatigue on outcomes, further high-quality studies are needed.
Gray et al. (Thu,) studied this question.