Psychological screening in rheumatoid arthritis.
 Our objective was to examine the utility of the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) as a psychological screening instrument for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
 Subjects were 81 male and 3 female patients with classic or definite RA who were categorized into 3 anatomic stage groups based on roentgenograms.
 Erythrocyte sedimentation rates, joint counts, and the SCL-90-R were obtained on all subjects.
 In addition, rheumatologists were surveyed, and items were analyzed to identify potential disease related items on the SCL-90-R.
 Both the survey and the item analyses supported the utility of the SCL-90-R as a psychological screening instrument in a population with RA.
