Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) describes arthritis occurring under the age of 16. Pain has long been acknowledged to be associated with psychiatric morbidity. There is a paucity of psychiatric research into the long term outcomes and management benefits for this cohort. Hence we aimed to review what was currently known, to enable a thorough research study to take place.

PubMed search was carried out using search terms’JIA and psychiatry’,’Arthritis and psychology’,’long term effects of JIA’,’JIA psychiatric management’. The papers sourced were ranked in accordance with ICJME guidelines and reviewed. Ethics was waived as this is a review.

The findings highlight a high prevalence of depression in amongst JIA sufferers, with 50% experiencing depression into adult life. Somatoform disorders are also more common in JIA sufferers. Currently there is no uniform management strategy integrated into the JIA package, although it is considered more than we hypothesised.

This review thus emphasises the necessity of ensuring paediatric psychiatric management is within the care package offered to JIA patients, particularly as our paper discusses how 50% of patients continue to have symptoms in their adult life, thus impacting on their long term psychiatric status.