Chronic conditions such as rheumatic diseases often carry a great burden, with pain, disability, and mood disorders ultimately leading to a poor quality of life. Resilience, defined as the skill to positively cope with stressful and critical events, could mediate the influence of rheumatic disease on patients’ life and may have a role in withstanding it. While resilience could be in some cases an innate ability, it can also be acquired through a dynamic process. Accordingly, the concept of resilience has been gaining relevance lately and, since a more resilient approach could have a positive effect in the management of chronic diseases, implementing coping strategies should be a priority in everyday clinical practice. Here we review resilience and its potential beneficial role in inflammatory arthritis, connective tissue diseases, and fibromyalgia and assess its relationship with disease activity and mood disorder, and evaluating the possible strategies aimed at improving it.

Resilience, Rheumatology, Psychology, Anxiety, Depression, Rheumatoid arthritis, Connective tissue diseases, Fibromyalgia