Depressive symptoms, stress, anger/anxiety, and social support may preferentially affect cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and screening/treatment of psychosocial morbidities in RA may help ameliorate the additional CVD burden. This according to a study of 195 patients with RA and 1,073 non-RA controls. Researchers found that in patients with RA:

• Per-unit higher anxiety scores [odds ratio (OR), 1.10], anger scores (OR, 1.14), depressive symptoms (OR, 3.41), and caregiver stress (OR, 2.86) were associated with an increased odds of coronary artery calcium > 100 units.

• These findings persisted despite adjustments for markers of inflammation and were not seen in controls.

• Job stress was associated with an increased risk of carotid plaque (OR, 3.21).

• Increasing social support was associated with lower internal carotid intima-media thickness.

Citation: Liu YL, Szklo M, Davidson KW, Bathon JM, Giles JT. Psychosocial comorbidities are differentially associated with subclinical atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis: comparison with MESA. [Published online ahead of print August 13, 2015]. Arthritis Care Res. doi: 10.1002/acr.22635.