The Study of the Psychiatric Symptoms of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

A Critical Review

Abstract

 

This paper critically reviews studies of psychiatric symptoms in systemic lupus erythematosus. Reported findings vary by chronologic order of publication, clinical orientation of the author, mode of selecting cases and method of examination. This variation in findings reflects errors of method, the most common of which are biased selection of subjects, lack of comparison groups, unreliable recording of observations on the patient and inconsistent presentation of data. Suggestions are made for reducing these errors, including the use of structured interviews and matched comparison groups.