Scleroderma Intervention Network News Today

Speaking in his office, it is clear that Brett Thombs’ route into research has been anything but conventional. After leaving many jobs behind, his career quickly accelerated, and today he is Professor and Canada Research Chair at McGill University (Montreal, QC, Canada). There, Thombs directs two projects: the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN) and the DEPRESsion Screening Data project.

Systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma, is a rare and complex autoimmune connective-tissue disease. Once considered an untreatable and unpredictable condition, research advancements have improved our understanding of its disease pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes and expanded our treatment armamentarium. Early and accurate diagnosis is essential, while ongoing efforts to risk stratify patients have a central role in predicting both organ involvement and disease progression. A holistic a...

Online mental health intervention improves anxiety in isolated scleroderma patients during the pandemic People with a rare autoimmune disease, who likely experience more serious isolation during a global pandemic, saw their anxiety and depression improve after receiving online mental health intervention through an international study involving investigators from Michigan Medicine. The paper, published in the Lancet Rheumatology, analyzed the mental health progress of over 150 people with scler...