Stressors and rheumatoid arthritis: changes in stressors with advances in therapeutic agents.

The significance of evaluations of stressors in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients was investigated from the perspective of holistic medicine. The subjects were RA patients treated in the rheumatology outpatient clinic. They included 30 patients from 1987, 30 from 2002, and 137 from 2009.