Impact of depression on the quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to multiple focal and diffuse lesions of the central nervous system, resulting in disability of patients. Currently the impact of depression on the quality of life (QoL) of MS patients has been little studied.Objective: to study the effect of depressive disorders on the QoL of patients with MS, to search for factors influencing the development of depression in patients with MS.Material and methods. The study involved 203 MS patients aged 15 to 60 years (mean age 39.7±10.91 years). Disability according to the EDSS scale was 2.51±1.45 points, the average duration of the disease was 8.07±7.22 years. The comparison group consisted of 52 healthy people aged 24 to 43 years (mean age 31.86±6.98 years).Results. Patients with MS in more than half of cases (55.7%) suffer from depressive disorders. In MS patients there was an association of depression with older age, a longer duration of the disease, as well as a higher level of disability and exacerbations (p<0.001). MS patients with depression significantly more often (p<0.01) complained of increased fatigue and had higher scores on the scales of asthenia, situational and personal anxiety, and were also exposed to stressful influences and tolerated them poorly; they were more likely than those of the control group to had depressive episodes earlier. MS patients with depression had lower scores (p<0.001) for all QoL criteria, which further accelerated their disability and social isolation.Conclusion. Depression in MS patients has a negative impact on all QoL indicators.

Keywords

• multiple sclerosis
• the quality of life
• depression