What makes axial spondyloarthritis difficult to manage? A qualitative study of patient and rheumatologist perspectives
Fakih Olivier · 2026 · The Journal of Rheumatology
Reading the original? How to read a paper.
What this paper found
Interviews with French patients who had been through three or more biologics, and their rheumatologists, found they describe difficult-to-manage disease differently: patients talk about pain, fatigue and what they can no longer do, while doctors talk about not being able to tell inflammation from other causes. Much of what makes AS hard to manage is the conversation itself, not only the biology.
Why this is on the map
The patient-voice complement to the two prevalence papers on difficult-to-manage axSpA.
On the map under this thread
DOI: 10.3899/jrheum.2026-0336 · opens in a new tab. The full paper is on the publisher’s site, not here.
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