The psychological effects of systemic lupus erythematosus: the imitator of aging
Abstract
Objectives: To assess the psychological effects of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including perception of aging, in a cohort of participants who were either diagnosed with SLE or had an affected family member.
Methods: Over a period of 1 year, we conducted once-monthly face-to-face interviews with 12 participants. The participants were from 4 related families and include 7 females and 5 males. Three participants had a confirmed diagnosis of SLE. Spouses were also included in this study to assess transitivity of the psychological signs of SLE. Responses to structured interview questions were analyzed to assess the perception of aging.
Results: The major complaints in participants diagnosed with SLE were pain and psychological stress. Nephrotic syndrome, urinary tract infection, weight disorders and increased need for psychosocial support were common in the participants’ medical history. Qualitative analysis of questionnaires completed by participants with SLE revealed a correlation of “feeling old” with the non-resolution of health complaints. Family members who did not have SLE also reported “feeling old”. Complaints of stress, anxiety, nervousness and lack of enjoyment of life were common in those who were diagnosed with SLE, as well as those who were not. All spouses reported experiencing digestive disorders, hemorrhoids as well as various phobias, regardless of whether their partners had a confirmed SLE diagnosis.
Conclusions: In this study, we found that participants with SLE or those who had a close family member with SLE displayed psychological signs of aging. All participants had a predisposition to anxiety, while spouses developed various phobias.
Statement of novelty: We show that individuals with SLE and close family members have an increased self-perception of aging.
Formats available
You can view the full content in the following formats:
REFERENCES
Ainiala H., Loukkola J., Peltola J., Korpela M., and Hietaharju A. 2001. The prevalence of neuropsychiatric syndromes in systemic lupus erythematosus. Neurology. 57(3):496–500.
Andrews N.R., Chaney J.M., Mullins L.L., Wagner J.L., Hommel K.A., and Jarvis J.N. 2009. The differential effect of child age on the illness intrusiveness–parent distress relationship in juvenile rheumatic disease. Rehabil. Psychol. 54(1):45–50.
Anneser J., Arenz V., and Borasio G.D. 2018. Neurological symptoms in palliative care patients. Front. Neurol. 9:275.
Ben-Menachem E. 2010. Systemic lupus erythematosus: A review for anesthesiologists. Anesth. Analg. 111(3):665–676.
Billino J. and Pilz K.S. 2019. Motion perception as a model for perceptual aging. J. Vis. 19(4):3.
Boodhoo K.D., Liu S., and Zuo X. 2016. Impact of sex disparities on the clinical manifestations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine. 95(29):e4272.
Braga J., Rothwell R., Oliveira M., Rodrigues D., Fonseca S., Varandas R., and Ribeiro L. 2019. Choroid thickness profile in patients with lupus nephritis. Lupus. 28(4):475–482.
Budhram A., Chu R., Rusta-Sallehy S., Ioannidis G., Denburg J.A., Adachi J.D., and Haaland D.A. 2014. Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody as a marker of erosive arthritis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lupus. 23(11):1156–1163.
Cojocaru M., Cojocaru I.M., Silosi I., and Vrabie C.D. 2011. Manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus. Maedica. 6(4):330–336.
Dai J. 2017. Using tests of transitivity to evaluate psychological models of intertemporal choice for individuals: Reply to Scholten (2017). Decision. 4(2):127–130.
Danoff-Burg S. and Friedberg F. 2009. Unmet needs of patients with SLE. Behav. Med. 35(1):5–13.
Di Matteo A., Isidori M., Corradini D., Cipolletta E., McShane A., De Angelis R., Filippucci E., and Grassi W. 2019. Ultrasound in the assessment of musculoskeletal involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus: State of the art and perspectives. Lupus. 28(5):583–590.
Druley J.A., Stephens M.A.P., and Coyne J.C. 1997. Emotional and physical intimacy in coping with lupus: Women’s dilemmas of disclosure and approach. Health Psychol. 16(6):506–514.
Fougner M., Bergland A., Lund A., and Debesay J. 2019. Aging and exercise: Perceptions of the active lived-body. Physiother. Theory Pract. 35(7):651–662.
Fox N.A., Henderson H.A., Marshall P.J., Nichols K.E., and Ghera M.M. 2005. Behavioral inhibition: Linking biology and behavior within a developmental framework. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 56(1):235–262.
Gall, M.D., Barg, W.R., and Gall, J.P. 1996. Educational research: An introduction. 6th ed. White Plains, NY, USA: Longman.
Gerring J. 2004. What is a case study and what is it good for? Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 98(2):341–354.
Gire, J.T. 2019. Cultural variations in perceptions of aging. In Cross‐cultural psychology: Contemporary themes and perspectives. pp. 216–240.
Gurera J.W. and Isaacowitz D.M. 2019. Emotion regulation and emotion perception in aging: A perspective on age-related differences and similarities. Prog. Brain Res. 247:329–351.
Hanly J.G., Li Q., Su L., Urowitz M.B., Gordon C., Bae S.C., Romero-Diaz J., Sanchez-Guerrero J., Bernatsky S., Clarke A.E., Wallace D.J., Isenberg D.A., Rahman A., Merrill J.T., Fortin P.R., Gladman D.D., Bruce I.N., Petri M., Ginzler E.M., Dooley M.A., Steinsson K., Ramsey-Goldman R., Zoma A.A., Manzi S., Nived O., Jonsen A., Khamashta M.A., Alarcón G.S., van Vollenhoven R.F., Aranow C., Mackay M., Ruiz-Irastorza G., Ramos-Casals M., Lim S.S., Inanc M., Kalunian K.C., Jacobsen S., Peschken C.A., Kamen D.L., Askanase A., Theriault C., and Farewell V. 2019. Psychosis in systemic lupus erythematosus: Results from an international inception cohort study. Arthritis Rheumatol. 71(2):281–289.
Hooker K., Mejía S.T., Phibbs S., Tan E.J., and Stevens J. 2019. Effects of age discrimination on self-perceptions of aging and cancer risk behaviors. Gerontologist. 59(Suppl. 1):S28–S37.
Hupcey J.E., Penrod J., and Fogg J. 2009. Heart failure and palliative care: Implications in practice. J. Palliat. Med. 12(6):531–536.
Iverson G.L. 1995. The need for psychological services for persons with systemic lupus erythematosus. Rehabil. Psychol. 40(1):39–49.
Jung U.H., Kwak S.G., Choe J.Y., Lee S.S., and Kim S.K. 2019. The effect of mycophenolate mofetil on non-renal manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus: Results from Korean Lupus Network registry. J. Korean Med. Sci. 34(27):e185.
Kang D. and Mok C.C. 2019. Management of psychosis in neuropsychiatric lupus. J. Clin. Rheumatol. Immunol. 19(1):9–17.
Kokosi M., Lams B., and Agarwal S. 2019. Systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. Clin. Chest Med. 40(3):519–529.
Malekan, M., and Kontzias, A. 2020. Musculoskeletal manifestations of systemic diseases. In Absolute rheumatology review. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. pp. 425–445.
McLaughlin D., Hasson F., Kernohan W.G., Waldron M., McLaughlin M., Cochrane B., and Chambers H. 2011. Living and coping with Parkinson’s disease: Perceptions of informal carers. Palliat. Med. 25(2):177–182.
Mendelson C. 2006. Managing a medically and socially complex life: Women living with lupus. Qual. Health Res. 16(7):982–997.
Meszaros Z.S., Perl A., and Faraone S.V. 2012. Psychiatric symptoms in systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review. J. Clin. Psychiatry. 73(7):993–1001.
Metry A.M., Al Salmi I., Al Balushi F., Yousef M.A., Al Ismaili F., Hola A., and Hannawi S. 2019. Systemic lupus erythematosus: Symptoms and signs at initial presentations. Antiinflamm. Antiallergy Agents Med. Chem. 18(2):142–150.
Mihas, P. 2019. Qualitative data analysis. In Oxford research encyclopedia of education.
Monaghan S.M., Sharpe L., Denton F., Levy J., Schreiber L., and Sensky T. 2007. Relationship between appearance and psychological distress in rheumatic diseases. Arthritis Rheum. 57(2):303–309.
Moses N., Wiggers J., Nicholas C., and Cockburn J. 2005. Prevalence and correlates of perceived unmet needs of people with systemic lupus erythematosus. Patient. Educ. Couns. 57(1):30–38.
Papadaki E., Kavroulakis E., Bertsias G., Fanouriakis A., Karageorgou D., Sidiropoulos P., Papastefanakis E., Boumpas D.T., and Simos P. 2019. Regional cerebral perfusion correlates with anxiety in neuropsychiatric SLE: Evidence for a mechanism distinct from depression. Lupus. 28(14):1678–1689.
Parish A., Kim J., Lewallen K.M., Miller S., Myers J., Panepinto R., and Maxwell C.A. 2019. Knowledge and perceptions about aging and frailty: An integrative review of the literature. Geriatr. Nurs. 40(1):13–24.
Philip E.J., Lindner H., and Lederman L. 2009. Confidence in medical care linked to depression in lupus sufferers. J. Allied Health. 38(2):106–112.
Richardson J. 2002. Health promotion in palliative care: The patients’ perception of therapeutic interaction with the palliative nurse in the primary care setting. J. Adv. Nurs. 40(4):432–440.
Riley S., Brooks J., Goodman S., Cahill S., Branney P., Treharne G., and Sullivan C. 2019. Celebrations amongst challenges: Considering the past, present and future of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology (QMiP) section of the British Psychological Society. Qual. Res. Psychol. 16(3):464–482.
Rodriguez K.L., Barnato A.E., and Arnold R.M. 2007. Perceptions and utilization of palliative care services in acute care hospitals. J. Palliat. Med. 10(1):99–110.
Santoantonio J., Yazigi L., and Sato E.I. 2006. Rorschach characteristics in adolescents with systemic lupus erythematosus. Rorschachiana. 28(1):100–118.
Schattner E., Shahar G., and Abu-Shakra M. 2008. I used to dream of lupus as some sort of creature: Chronic illness as an internal object. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry. 78(4):466–472.
Seawell A. and Danoff-Burg S. 2005. Body image and sexuality in women with and without systemic lupus erythematosus. Sex Roles. 53(11–12):865–876.
Shucard J.L., Lee W.H., Safford A.S., and Shucard D.W. 2011. The relationship between processing speed and working memory demand in systemic lupus erythematosus: Evidence from a visual n-back task. Neuropsychology. 25(1):45–52.
Smith J.L. and Bryant F.B. 2019. Enhancing positive perceptions of aging by savoring life lessons. Aging Mental Health. 23(6):762–770.
Spiers J. and Riley R. 2019. Analysing one dataset with two qualitative methods: The distress of general practitioners, a thematic and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qual. Res. Psychol. 16(2):276–290.
Srivarathan A., Jensen A.N., and Kristiansen M. 2019. Community-based interventions to enhance healthy aging in disadvantaged areas: Perceptions of older adults and health care professionals. BMC Health Serv. Res. 19(1):7.
Wang Z., Li M., Zhao J., Wang Q., and Zeng X. 2019. 220 Clinical characteristics and remission of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in China: Results from SLE treatment and research group (CSTAR) registry with a real-time collecting system. Lupus Sci. Med. 6(Suppl. 1):A164.
Zheng X., Xiao Z.X., Hu L., Fang X., Luo L., and Chen L. 2019. Dendritic cell-associated B7-H3 suppresses the production of autoantibodies and renal inflammation in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. Cell Death Dis. 10(6):1–11.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
LymphoSign Journal
Volume 7 • Number 1 • March 2020
Pages: 37 - 45
History
Received: 8 October 2019
Accepted: 20 January 2020
Accepted manuscript online: 28 January 2020
Copyright
© 2020.
Authors
Competing Interests
The Author declares that they have no conflict of interest.
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Other Metrics
Citations
Cite As
FahriÖzsungur. 2020. The psychological effects of systemic lupus erythematosus: the imitator of aging. LymphoSign Journal.
7(1): 37-45. https://doi.org/10.14785/lymphosign-2019-0016
Export Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
There are no citations for this item
View Options
Get Access
Login options
Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
