Your Medical History - Diagnosing Arthritis: Arthritis

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Your medical history

Your symptoms — what they are, when they first began, and how they've changed over time — provide potent clues to whether arthritis is inflammatory or noninflammatory. Your doctor will need to know about the following:

• type of joint symptoms (such as pain or stiffness)

• effect of activity (such as increased pain or relief of stiffness during or after a particular activity)

• general pattern of joint symptoms (started gradually or suddenly, worsened over time or stayed about the same, migrated from one joint to another, or fluctuated in intensity)

• any other symptoms (fever, fatigue, weight loss, skin problems, bowel problems)

• events that occurred near the time the symptoms first appeared (such as viral illness, bacterial infection, injury, vaccination, new medication, or change in activity)

• time of day that joint symptoms are worst (prolonged morning stiffness suggests inflammatory arthritis; night pain is more typical of noninflammatory joint disease)

• presence or absence of joint swelling, redness, or warmth

• previous episodes of similar symptoms

• family history of arthritis or rheumatic disease.

Last updated:	September 05, 2008