Chronic Inflammatory Diseases

There are several recognised chronic inflammatory diseases that we commonly see in patients with persistent pain. When looking at these individuals from a bio-psycho-social perspective, we are aware that the biological influence over their symptoms becomes more significant and that this often creates bigger hurdles for patients in terms of overall management of their condition. The ability to feel improvements in symptoms as well as quality of life and overall function is inevitably more challenging. It is also likely that the chronic nature of these conditions requires patients to be more accepting of what they are facing and more realistic about their expectations in regards to how much they can improve. However, we know that the psychosocial aspects to these conditions are likely to also be quite significant. Chronic stress is also inflammatory and will affect immune system function. Patients will often find that their physical symptoms feel more obvious to them when they are not able to manage these psychological and social stresses. This is really hard for anyone and we encourage these patients, in particular, to engage with psychological therapy as part of their overall management along side guidance and treatment in physical therapy and medical intervention and review as needed.

The conditions we come across most often are rheumatoid arthritis and other systemic inflammatory joint diseases as well as conditions like axial spondyloarthritis (formerly called ankylosing spondylitis)