Clinical rheumatology
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Clinical rheumatology · Nov 2014
Efficacy of an out-patient pain management programme for people with joint hypermobility syndrome.
Joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS) is common in patients presenting to rheumatologists and can cause a range of symptoms leading to physical and psychological distress. Chronic musculoskeletal pain in patients with JHS often responds poorly to analgesics, and a pain management approach may be helpful. Since patients with JHS often have beliefs and experiences different to those of other chronic pain patients, they could fare better in JHS-specific programmes. ⋯ Although by 5 months all these outcomes had regressed towards pre-programme levels there remained significant improvements compared to baseline in all except average pain intensity. This open study shows that patients with JHS experienced significant benefits after attending a JHS-specific pain management programme, which were still evident 5 months later. Longer-term controlled studies are required.
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Clinical rheumatology · Nov 2014
Biography Historical ArticleSSc and the 2013 diagnostic criteria: the case of Paul Klee's manual pathology and dysgraphia.
The German-Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee (1879-1940) suffered in the final years of his life from a severe illness, diagnosed in 1936 as scleroderma, later renamed SSc. New classification criteria for this disease issued in 2013 now allow for a diagnosis to be confirmed. ⋯ The morphology of the artist's hands and evidence of dysgraphic changes in his handwriting are reviewed as indications of his manual pathology. Despite his illness, Klee triumphed over his infirmity, simplifying his painting and drawing styles and substantially increasing his artistic output from 1936 until his death in 1940.