Musculoskeletal

Transcript

Chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are the single biggest cause of the rising burden of disability in England. These long term conditions have a huge negative impact on individuals including on employment, well-being, day to day function, mobility and pain.

There are about 200 different musculoskeletal conditions, which fall into five main groups

Inflammatory arthritis

Degenerative arthritis including osteoarthritis

Soft tissue pain

Back pain

And connective tissue diseases or CTD

There are approximately 350,000 people aged 16 years or older with rheumatoid arthritis in England.

An Arthritis Research UK report estimates that the number of people with osteoarthritis in England is around 7.3 million.

A common misconception is that little can be done for people with chronic musculoskeletal conditions, but this is not true. As a pharmacist you can support people with these conditions to live well and deal with their condition. Use the resources on this page to learn how to prevent disability by supporting your patients to aim for a healthy weight, increase physical activity and use medicines effectively.

NICE Osteoarthritis: care and management clinical guideline

Opioids are prescribed very widely, mainly for managing pain. This module identifies the most important hazards of opioids and informs on actions that health professionals can take in order to anticipate, minimise and manage the risks.

NICE Clinical guideline Rheumatoid arthritis in adults: management

Work your way around the NSAIDs learning topic, taking part in bite-sized interactive challenges that will help you and your team support and give advice to people wanting to purchase over-the-counter NSAIDs. The challenges will also help you support people suffering with adverse effects to NSAIDs, and people with long-term conditions, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

You can access this learning here: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - theLearningpharmacy.com

The individual floors on this resource may not have been updated for more than 12 months. The next review of this resource will take place in 2023. When working through the hotspot activities on each floor, you should make sure that you are using the most up-to-date guidance and resources available in order to support both you and your team effectively.

Learning Objectives:

This short questionnaire that allows people with musculoskeletal conditions (such as arthritis or back pain) to report their symptoms and quality of life in a standardised way.

The Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA) is the umbrella body for the arthritis and musculoskeletal community in the UK, and our mission is to transform the quality of life of people with musculoskeletal conditions