Analysis of education-support groups for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

A controlled study of education-support groups for patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed that participation increased patients' knowledge about their disease (P less than 0.05) and improved some patients' perceptions of the adequacy of their families' attitudes and behavior. The groups had little effect on the patients' ability to cope with arthritis or on their compliance with prescribed treatment. Some participants felt threatened by the thought of meeting another patient with more severe rheumatoid arthritis than their own. This finding suggests that group leaders should facilitate open discussion of such emotional concerns, eg, fear and depression, that admixtures may generate.