How important is patient education?

The prevalence and disability rate of rheumatic diseases are increasing. It seems that non-medical causes play an important role in the morbidity, dis ability and mortality of these patients. Efforts to reduce their impact are extremely important. Patient education is thought to be one way to limit d isability in rheumatic diseases and to achieve an improvement in quality of life. In this chapter, we review the influence of non-medical causes of mo rbidity on disease outcome, some basic aspects of education and the evidenc e of the effectiveness of patient education in diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromy algia syndrome.