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The European League Against Rheumatism and the American College of Rheumatology have published treatment recommendations for polymyalgia rheumatic, the most common inflammatory musculoskeletal disease of older people.

A study in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders suggests that multinucleated giant cells (MGC) may contribute to osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in addition to their known association with synovitis severity. The finding adds to other recent research and points to the therapeutic potential of targeting MGCs to improve pain and joint damage in both types of arthritis.

Gout has been making quite a stir in news recently. Between a new classification system and a study showing that a common food can cause painful flares, this form of arthritis is getting quite a bit of attention. Now comes word that a drug used to treat gout could also be effective for another damaging condition.

A systematic review of alopecia areata (AA) in Clinical, Cosmetic & Investigational Dermatology highlighted the unpredictability and lack of treatment options for the condition. But it also pointed to a larger problem: more than half of patients with AA experience poor health-related quality of life (QOL). Patients with AA are at risk for depression and anxiety, atopy, vitiligo, thyroid disease, and other autoimmune conditions.

A recent study in The Journal of Headache and Pain sheds some additional light on the chronobiological experience of patients with cluster headache (CH). However, it still leaves lingering mysteries around the pattern of pain CH that patients typically experience, the triggers of those headaches, and the mechanisms and interactions that drive headache frequency and severity.

B-cells that are active in lupus may also play a role in Sjögren’s syndrome. A new study finds that the same B-cell depleter drug, belimumab (Benlysta) approved for lupus, may also benefit Sjögren’s patients.

Social stressors, such as being treated poorly in a doctor’s office, can lead to negative disease outcomes, particularly among black women with lupus, a new study shows.