Older adults' perspective on the therapeutic alliance and a meta-analytic review of emotional support and depression in adults with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective

Biopsychosocial models of adjustment to chronic illness indicate that social support should be strongly associated with depression; however, this is not consistently evident within the literature. This review and meta-analysis aimed to test the strength of association between emotional support (as a distinct social support concept) and depressive symptomatology in an adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) population.