We have examined the characteristics of the pain experience as well as barriers to optimal pain management in 60 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) consecutively attending a specialist rheumatology practice. Pain was reported to be moderate to severe in 32 (53%) and mild to absent in 28 (47%). Sixty-five percent of all patients, including almost half of those with moderate to severe pain, reported satisfaction with current pain control. The average number of barriers to pain management for individual patients was 2.6 +/- 1.5, with 33 patients (55%) reporting 3 or more barriers. Specific barriers included concern about side effects of medications in 80%, dislike for "too many pills" in 63%, concern about drug interactions in 57%, fear of addiction in 35%, and fear of masking disease in 27% of the patients. More barriers were significantly associated with higher pain level (r = .33, P = .011) and pain intensity on a visual analogue scale (r = .29, P = .024). Other than the regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in 37% of the patients and acetaminophen in 37%, analgesics or other modalities to reduce pain were seldom used.
Perspective: Moderate to severe pain was present in over half of patients with RA with many reporting the presence of considerable barriers to pain control. These barriers likely contribute to sub optimal pain management. RA patients tolerate pain and use limited mechanisms to deal with the symptom of pain.