ACR Workgroup Recommends Annual Screening for Depression, Physical Function Among Patients With SLE

Expert workgroup members and patient partners recommend that clinicians assess depression and physical function at least once every year among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as published in Arthritis Care and Research.

Additional patient-reported outcome measures include addressing cognition and fatigue among these patients.

The expert workgroup taskforce—including physicians, patients, and research representatives—identified outcome domains important to patients with SLE. With direct inputs from patients, they finalized a few domains they felt were most valuable in providing patient care.

The experts identified depression and physical function as domains that should be part of the minimum standard of care for every patient.

Based on these findings, the panel recommended “assessment for depression at least once a year using the Patient Health Questionnaire or Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) depression scales”; and “assessment of physical function at least once a year with the PROMIS physical function scales or the Multi-Dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ).”

“Next steps are to incorporate patient reported outcome measures-based quality measures into the American College of Rheumatology's RISE (Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness) registry,” the authors said.

Reference:
Katz P, Barber CEH, Duarte-García, A et al. Development of the American College of Rheumatology's patient-reported outcome quality measures for systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Care Res. Published online: January 15, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.25301