Can treatment expectations or treatment itself in patients with arthralgia suspicious for progression to rheumatoid arthritis improve illness perceptions?

Objectives: Negative illness perceptions (IPs) are associated with poorer disease outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Unfortunately, IPs are generally stable in established RA. We hypothesized that IPs, especially in the cognitive domain, are modifiable in arthralgia at risk of RA. We aimed to study if receiving DMARD treatment, or the offer of DMARD treatment associates with more positive IPs in patients with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA). Methods: The population studied were CSA patients to which a wait-and-see approach was adopted without offering DMARD treatment, or patients were offered DMARD treatment via the TREAT EARLIER trial and subsequently randomized to receive methotrexate or placebo. IPs were assessed using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), covering cognitive, emotional and comprehensibility domains. The effect of DMARD treatment on IPs over time was studied by comparing the 2-year course of BIPQs of patients receiving methotrexate or placebo. The effect of offering DMARD treatment was examined by comparing the BIPQs of CSA patients in the trial with those undergoing a wait-and-see policy. Results: In total, 375 CSA patients were studied, of which 236 of the TREAT EARLIER trial and 139 with a wait-and-see approach. Patients who received treatment showed sustained improvements in IPs over time compared with placebo in four cognitive domains: experience of physical complaints (P = 0.040), the illness’s influence on life (P = 0.001), treatment effectiveness (P = 0.041) and disease duration (P = 0.045). Comparison at baseline showed that CSA patients to whom treatment was offered had more confidence in treatment (P < 0.001) and tended to have a deeper understanding of their disease (P = 0.054). Conclusion: Both the prospect of and DMARD treatment itself improved IPs in CSA, mainly in cognitive domains. These data suggest CSA as a suitable time period for influencing IPs, which may provide possibilities to improve disease outcomes in patients developing RA.