Managing Pain in Rheumatic Diseases

Pain is the most important symptom in most patients with arthritis. Successful management requires comprehensive evaluation of the pain including identifying characteristics of the pain, its effect on usual life activities, cognitive-affective factors, family relations, and past pain and illness experience. Interventions should be specific to the individual patient's pain and circumstances and may include medications, physical modalities, adaptive behaviors, exercises, orthotics, surgery, cognitive interventions, and others.