Lupus and its treatments can impair mental & emotional health. 80-90% of people with lupus. Neuropsychiatric lupus describes feelings of depression, headaches, and lupus fog — trouble thinking or remembering due to lupus. 25% of lupus patients experience major depression and 37% have major anxiety, research shows.
Life with lupus can be challenging. With symptoms that come and go, disease flares and remissions, and the uncertainty of what each day will bring, it's normal to experience feelings of unhappiness, frustration, anger, or sadness. It's also normal to grieve for the loss of the life you had before lupus.
Having lupus can make everyday life challenging. When your lupus is active, symptoms like joint stiffness, pain, fatigue, confusion, or depression can make simple tasks difficult — and sometimes impossible. Since these symptoms aren't visible, the people around you may have trouble understanding how you feel.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in lupus patients, and their recognition is important. There are five psychiatric symptoms according to the ACR classification: cognitive dysfunction, mood disorder, anxiety disorders, psychosis, and acute confusional state.
Lupus psychosis is characterized by acute confusional state and seizure episodes whereas mood disorder is predominant in steroid induced psychosis.
Depression and generalised anxiety can occur as a reaction to these symptoms and if the underlying lupus can be better controlled, features of low mood, loss of interest and insomnia often improve. Lupus can directly affect the brain and is probably the most feared feature for the patient.
Serious mental disorders may occur when lupus attacks the brain, spine, or nerves. The medical term psychosis includes mood swings, mania, serious depression, hallucinations, or delusions. About 12 percent of people with lupus will develop psychosis at some time in their illness.
Lupus can also drastically change one's appearance. Patients can have hair loss, rashes and scarring, as well as medication side effects like weight gain, hair loss and stretch marks,” says Dr. Jolly, who has led a number of studies on body image in people with lupus.
Lupus can also cause cognitive problems with a person's memory, concentration, attention and planning. People with the disease often refer to this as 'brain fog'.
Many lupus patients aren't able to do intensive physical work, like waitressing or working in a grocery store. Jobs that involve standing for long periods, like working a cash register, greeting customers, or being a hostess at a restaurant, can be physically tiring as well as rough on the joints.
People with lupus can have cognitive symptoms, like having a hard time thinking clearly or remembering things. This is also called “brain fog” or “lupus fog,” and it often comes and goes over time.
Research shows that stress can worsen lupus symptoms and trigger flares. Stress relates to the feeling of being overwhelmed. Under stress, the body secretes hormones like cortisol to trigger the fight or flight response. In instances of prolonged stress, the human body can be severely affected.
Many people with lupus have pain and arthritis in their joints as well. This pain may contribute to fatigue. People with lupus who report more pain also tend to report greater feelings of fatigue.
One-fifth of people with lupus report having a decreased appetite or losing weight. Most people with lupus say they have gained weight after starting steroid treatment.
If your brain is affected by lupus, you may experience headaches, dizziness, behavior changes, vision problems, and even strokes or seizures. Many people with lupus experience memory problems and may have difficulty expressing their thoughts. Blood and blood vessels.
Some people with lupus have reported total aphonia, or inability to speak, that can last for several days before or after an autoimmune flare-up. The connection between lupus and voice problems appears to be related to the cricoarytenoid joint, which has a fibrous joint capsule around it filled with synovial fluid.
The term 'lupus fog' is used by many people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). On patient fora and websites, confusion, difficulty planning, loss of concentration, difficulty in articulating thoughts, and memory impairment are symptoms described in the context of this fog.
Myalgia/myositis
Pain in the muscles (myalgia) is a common symptom in lupus patients. The upper arms and thighs are the most frequently involved areas. In some cases, the pain is accompanied by muscle weakness, which is known as myositis.
Class 4, or diffuse lupus nephritis
Class 4 involves damage to more than half of the glomerulus. A person will have high blood pressure. They may require dialysis as kidney function begins to worsen.