Psychoneuroimmunological aspects of the rheumatoid artritis

Psychoneuroimmunological aspect of RA has been studied. RA patients differ from healthy persons by heightened levels of anxiety, depression and alexythymia, direction and severity of aggression. In them predominance of less adaptive and less mature mechanisms of psychological defenses has been revealed. Reliable correlation interrelations between stress-dependent psychological characteristics and key factors of immunopathogenesis reflect the psychoneuroimmune nature of RA. RA patients suffer from chronic intrapersonali stress the consequence if which may be shifts in immune system of the kind of system autoimmune activation. For the heightening the efficacy of treatment the use of psychotherapeutic methods directed at correction of the mechanisms of stress tolerance is necessary.