About the Authors

Erin Arthurs

Affiliations Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Russell J. Steele

Affiliations Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Marie Hudson

Affiliations Department of Medicine (Division of Rheumatology), McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Murray Baron

Affiliations Department of Medicine (Division of Rheumatology), McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Brett D. Thombs

brett.thombs@mcgill.ca

Affiliations Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Department of Medicine (Division of Rheumatology), McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, School of Nursing, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada

(CSRG) Canadian Scleroderma Research Group

Membership of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG) is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

Actelion Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Inc. have provided unrestricted educational and research funds to the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group. The commercial funding that provides support to the CSRG does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: EA RS MH MB BT. Analyzed the data: EA RS BT. Wrote the paper: EA BT. Acquisition of data: RS MH MB BT. Critical revision of manuscript: EA RS MH MB BT. Final approval of the version of the manuscript submitted for review: EA RS MH MB BT.