depressive disorder in rheumatoid arthritis: the more joint’s distressed, the more severely depressed

introduction: to determine the prevalence of depressive disorder and it's related factors in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis. methods: this cross-sectional study was conductd from april 2013 to august 2014.a total of 81 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (ra) were enrolled from rheumatology clinic, shahid beheshti hospital, kashan/ iran. the severety of depressive disorder was measured by beck depression inventory, and the diagnosis of depressive disorder was confirmed in clinical interview by psychiatrist based on dsm-iv-tr. results: findings showed that more than half of the ra patients with depression 55.5 % had severe depression, the rest had moderate and mild degree of depression, (16.7%) and (27.8%) respectively. there was no statistically significant relationship between depression and age, sex, marital status, job, economic status, and joint deformity (p > 0.05). however, the relationship between depression and the number of affected joints was statistically significant (p = 0.02), those patients with seven or more affected joints had a higher rate of depression than those with six or less. conclusion: due to the relatively high prevalence of depressive disorder among those patients with rheumatoid arthritis early screening and treatment of depressive disorder is greatly recommended. declaration of interest: none