Resilience in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases

Along the last decade, likewise in other fields, the concept of resilience has been gaining relevance in medicine and psychology where, although many different definitions have been proposed, it can be briefly described as the skill to positively cope with stressful life events [1]. Chronic conditions such as rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) have a great impact on the quality of life, and resilience can help to withstand RMD associated pain and disability [2]. Being influenced by a wide spectrum of variables such as age, gender, culture, sociological context, education, and personal experiences, resilience can be either an innate ability or it can be acquired through a dynamic process [1,3]. Some evidence suggests that patients with RMD may have more effective coping strategies in response to stressful life events due to adaptive responses to the chronicity of their condition [3,4] and, consequently, they might deal better with unexpected stressful experiences. In this light, unsurprisingly, patients with inflammatory arthritis are more resilient than the general population towards unpredictable stressful situations such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic [5]. However, interventions able to strengthen the active process of resilience may reasonably improve the outcomes of RMD [6].