Psychological screening in rheumatoid arthritis.

Our objective was to examine the utility of the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) as a psychological screening instrument for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Subjects were 81 male and 3 female patients with classic or definite RA who were categorized into 3 anatomic stage groups based on roentgenograms. Erythrocyte sedimentation rates, joint counts, and the SCL-90-R were obtained on all subjects. In addition, rheumatologists were surveyed, and items were analyzed to identify potential disease related items on the SCL-90-R. Both the survey and the item analyses supported the utility of the SCL-90-R as a psychological screening instrument in a population with RA.