Patient's Prespective What do we know about rheumatoid arthritis patients' support needs for self-management? A scoping review. Zuidema RM et al, Int J Nurs Stud 2015 Jun 9.pii: S0020-7489(15)00185-6. Doctors can diagnose and prescribe drugs. However, in a populated country like ours, they have little time to look at the social and emotional needs of the patients. Nursing assistants can take care of these aspects are hence the need of the hour. In this review, the authors have analyzed what the needs of patients with RA are and have found informational (about drugs/exercises etc), social and emotional aspects to be the top three. Addressing these needs can help ensure that these patients are being managed holistically. Evaluation of a Rheumatology Transition Clinic. Stringer E et al, PediatrRheumatol Online J. 2015 Jun 11;13:22. A child is not a small adult. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis warrants specialty care especially for some issues that children face. When they grow up to be adults, some of these issues change – this necessitates a systematic transition of these patients from pediatric care to adult care. In this survey, the investigators tried to find out what the satisfaction levels were in transition clinics for such children now grown into adults. Overall they reported high levels of satisfaction in most aspects except when addressing adolescent issues (eg smoking, alcohol, drugs, sexual issues). Such special adolescent clinics are needed in our country but this concept is yet to take root. "An impediment to living life": why and how should we measure stiffness in polymyalgia rheumatica? Mackie SL et al, PLoS One. 2015 May 8;10(5):e0126758 Very few studies have been conducted on polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) as regards patient perspective. The investigators here have tried to find out which amongst the various symptoms of PMR troubles the patients the most and have found stiffness to be a common problem. To measure and quantify stiffness is very difficult and patients themselves rated numerical scales as better for the same and function as a good reflection of stiffness. More and more such studies will help us target the main symptom in these patients from their perspective. It's not just the joints, it's the whole thing: qualitative analysis of patients' experience of flare in psoriatic arthritis. Moverley AR et al, Rheumatology (Oxford) 2015 Aug; 54(8):1448-53. When we use the term flare in patients with arthritides, we mainly look at the number of swollen and tender joint counts and the inflammatory biomarkers in these patients. But how do patients perceive these flares? In this study of psoriatic arthritis patients, they have identified what constitutes ‘flare’ for them and many themes were identified including fatigue, loss of function, social withdrawal etc. Understanding these parameters will help us plan the management of these patients in a better way. Quality of life studies are needed to address this issue. Disrupted sleep is associated with altered pain processing by sex and ethnicity in knee osteoarthritis. Petrov ME et al, J Pain. 2015 May; 16(5):478-90 Sleep scales have been devised as an outcome measure for many diseases especially in rheumatology. How does sleep affect pain? Through this elegant study, the investigators have found that in patients with osteoarthritis, sleep deprivation does increase the pain threshold but the latter depends on the sex (females - more pain) and ethnicity (non Hispanic Whites - more pain) of the patients. Whether this finding is due to socio-economic cultural differences or true genetic differences – time and more research will tell.