Disease-related and psychosocial factors associated with depressive symptoms in patients with systemic sclerosis, including fear of progression and appearance self-esteem

Depressive symptoms were common in the present sample of patients with SSc and were independently associated with pain, fatigue, social support, emotion-focused coping, helplessness and fear of progression. Results suggest that, in addition to assessment of disease characteristics, attention should be given also to psychosocial factors found to be associated with depressive symptoms. For the development and trialling of psychological interventions, fear of progression could be an important target.