Dr. Wells asked the audience to close their eyes and think about someone or something they’d lost and think back to how it felt. This exercise can help providers connect with their patients. She said, “You can feel what that has felt like and relate to them and have that empathy.”
Express empathy: Dr. Wells also spoke on behalf of Natalie C. Datillo, PhD, MHA, a clinical psychologist who was unable to attend the session, offering guidance on how providers can bring warmth to the patient encounter. Providers can ask patients how they are addressing their pain and what their understanding of their condition is. Providers can bolster connection during these conversations by using eye contact, not sitting too far away, and using both touch and visual inspection.
“Patients want to be asked how they’re doing and want you to care how they’re doing,” Dr. Wells said. “They really want their doctor to get what’s going on, to get the experience of them.”
Building trust through these empathy-building steps can help patient medication adherence and overall outcomes. She said, “It actually very much impacts people’s health when you have a trusting relationship [with your provider].”
Mental Health Concerns
Dr. Wells noted that as many as 60% of adult patients with RA have an anxiety disorder or another mental health condition. About a third of adult patients with RA have depression.1 Evidence increasingly suggests that a bidirectional relationship exists between mental health conditions and rheumatic conditions, she noted.
There is a difference between grief and depression. Grief tends to involve more overt emotional pain related to a loss, and depression tends to involve a numbness and apathy and does not improve with time. Dr. Wells said, “I wouldn’t expect most rheumatology providers to be able to differentiate those pieces, but you would be the person probably who’s seeing it.”
These conditions often look similar but require different treatments. Looking out for grief and depression may prompt a rheumatology professional to refer a patient to a mental health expert.
Thomas Collins is a freelance medical writer based in Florida.
Reference
- Hill J, Harrison J, Christian D, et al. The prevalence of comorbidity in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Community Nurs. 2022 May 2;27(5):232–241.
