Aroua Yahyaoui 1; Nadra El Fani2; Sheyma Rezgui2; Mariem Gaddour3; Ines Heni2, Marwa Ghanmi2; Sahbi Elmtaoua 2.
Anxiety, Depression, and Associated Risk Factors in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Background
1. Neurophysiology department, University Hospital of Sahloul, Sousse, Tunisia
2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ibn El Jazzar University Hospital (CHU Ibn El Jazzar), Kairouan,
3. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sahloul University Hospital (CHU Sahloul), Sousse, Tunisia
Methods
Conclusion
Results
Anxiety and depression are common comorbidities in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, significantly impacting their quality of life. However, the underlying risk factors remain poorly understood. This study aims to assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression in MS patients and identify associated clinical and demographic factors.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 35 MS patients. Anxiety and depression were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), with a cutoff score ≥11 for both the Anxiety (HADS-A) and Depression (HADS-D) subscales indicating clinically significant symptoms. Demographic, clinical, and urological data were collected and analyzed using Fisher’s exact test, Pearson’s chi-square test, and independent t-tests. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
MS requires integrated neuropsychiatric care to address mind-body interactions and improve outcomes
The mean age of participants was 39.57 years (SD: 12.64), 60% were women with a mean disease duration of 10.63 years (SD: 8.28) and a mean age at MS diagnosis of 29.57 years (SD: 8.11).
Variable | Anxious group | Non-anxious group | p-value |
Mean age (years) | 44.35 | 35.08 | 0.039 |
Mean BMI | 26.29 | 23.41 | 0.05 |
Sexual dysfunction (%) | 22% | 16 | 0.047 |
UTIs (%) | 16% | 10% | 0.022 |
Variable | Depressed group | Non-depressed group | p-value |
Disease duration (years) | 14.81 | 6.94 | 0.006 |
Urinary symptom delay | 6.62 | 2.94 | 0.016 |
UTIs (%) | 15% | 8% | 0.012 |
Urinary complications | 21% | 17% | 0.048 |
No significant associations were found between psychiatric symptoms and gender, education level, comorbidities, MS subtype, treatment adherence