From town to town, city to city, suburb to suburb across America, people are gathering in groups large and small to discuss one specific topic: how arthritis has affected their lives. There are other support groups for people with challenges as diverse as recovering from a divorce, coping with breast cancer or fighting an addiction.

And most, like this one, provide participants with much more than an outlet for complaining and dwelling on the negative aspects of their lives. There's growing evidence that support groups are actually good medicine, providing physical and psychological benefits.

Support groups work, maintains David Spiegel, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Psychosocial Treatment Laboratory at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. And he has much more than just anecdotal evidence to back up his claim.

Over 10 years ago, Dr. Spiegel did groundbreaking research on the health benefits of social support in women with breast cancer.The results astounded him and changed the future direction of his research.

"When we followed up on the women later, it didn't surprise me to discover that the support groups had helped them emotionally," he says. " Bu I was not prepared to find that attending the groups actually improved the women's physical health. These women lived an average of 18 months longer than women with breast cancer who didn't attend the group. Something about the intense social support the women received from the group seemed to affect the way their bodies coped with the disease."

Since that study, the evidence of a link between social support and physical health has mounted. Dr. Spiegel hypothesizes about how involvement in a support group might bring about physical improvement for someone with arthritis.

"One way to thing about it is that arthritis causes a lot of secondary problems, like pain, lack of function or depression, over and above primary problems, such as joint destruction," he says. "Support can't stop the physical joint destruction, but it can bolster people emotionally so that they can better handle the secondary problems. Support seems to help people feel less overwhelmed and more in control."

Kate Lorig, RN, DrPH, educational director of the Stanford Arthritis Center and developer of the Arthritis Self Help Course offered by the Arthritis Foundation chapters throughout the nation, points to another beneficial aspect of support groups. "We normally think of support groups as a place to get support," she says. " But in talking with people, I hear over and over again that one of the most gratifying aspects of attending a support group is the opportunity to give help to others. For people with chronic illness, maintaining roles in life becomes very difficult. Being able to help others returns some of this to them."

Donna Huser agrees. "It feels good to be able to say, 'I've overcome that stage' and be able to offer your perspective to someone who can't yet see the light at the end of the tunnel."

" We've all come in crying at some point, or desperate, wondering if life is going to be like this. Sometimes you're the one offering encouragement; sometimes you're getting it."

And then, there's the simple fact of just knowing you're not alone in your situation that can be like a lifeline - especially when you have arthritis, which is so often dismissed as mild or inconsequential. Such callous misunderstandings can be devastating to someone who' battling invisible but debilitating pain without social validation of their illness.

"You start to think you're going crazy, " says Kathy.

"It's good to come here and know there are other people who go through the same problems you do, " adds Jeanie. That feeling is echoed by all the other participants.

"Other people often say, 'I know how you feel,' but in reality they don't," says Frances. "Only someone who's been through a bad flare or a difficult period with this disease can really know how I feel."

Kathy adds, "Even if you family and friends are supportive, they get tired of hearing about it all the time. I can air my frustrations freely here; I don't have to keep them all bottled up."