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The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that leads to neurological impairment and disability, mostly in young-aged people. Depression and anxiety are important associated mental disorders for people with MS (PwMS), which influence their life quali...

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Autores principales: Vacaras, Vitalie, Nistor, Cristina, Schiopu, Andra Maria, Vacaras, Cristiana, Marin, Gheorghe-Eduard, Muresanu, Dafin F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10257333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37320938
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2023.104825
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author Vacaras, Vitalie
Nistor, Cristina
Schiopu, Andra Maria
Vacaras, Cristiana
Marin, Gheorghe-Eduard
Muresanu, Dafin F.
author_facet Vacaras, Vitalie
Nistor, Cristina
Schiopu, Andra Maria
Vacaras, Cristiana
Marin, Gheorghe-Eduard
Muresanu, Dafin F.
author_sort Vacaras, Vitalie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that leads to neurological impairment and disability, mostly in young-aged people. Depression and anxiety are important associated mental disorders for people with MS (PwMS), which influence their life quality. During the COVID-19 pandemic, fear and stress levels enhanced dramatically for the general population, but mostly in progressive chronic pathologies such as MS. AIM: This study aimed to analyze the dynamic of psychological aspects in PwMS pre-pandemic and during pandemic, their connection with clinical outcomes, and with the coronavirus disease. METHODS: We included 95 PwMS with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS), who were first evaluated 4 years before the pandemic outbreak and the second time 2 years after. They completed a series of psychological tests for depression, anxiety, negative automatic thoughts, and stress: Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ). A neurologist evaluated the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and a COVID-19 survey was completed by 78 patients. RESULTS: During the pandemic, depression was encountered in 9.47% of PwMS, only 1.05% with a severe form, and 6.3% with suicidal thoughts, while anxiety was more frequent (39% of cases). Compared to the pre-pandemic period, depression levels remained stable over time (p = 0.55), anxiety was reduced (p<0.001), and stress levels significantly increased (p = 0.001). Some social aspects, such as having sufficient income, reduced the risk for psychological comorbidities. There was a mild correlation between emotional well-being and neurological disability. Of all patients who responded to the survey, 53.84% had previous COVID-19 infections, no patient was hospitalized and 69.23% were vaccinated. There was no relationship between the COVID-19 infection and psychological test results. CONCLUSION: During the pandemic, in the MS population depression remained stable, anxiety decreased, and stress levels were enhanced compared to the pre-pandemic period. Psychiatric comorbidities were not influenced by the coronavirus infection.
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spelling pubmed-102573332023-06-12 The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis Vacaras, Vitalie Nistor, Cristina Schiopu, Andra Maria Vacaras, Cristiana Marin, Gheorghe-Eduard Muresanu, Dafin F. Mult Scler Relat Disord Original Article BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that leads to neurological impairment and disability, mostly in young-aged people. Depression and anxiety are important associated mental disorders for people with MS (PwMS), which influence their life quality. During the COVID-19 pandemic, fear and stress levels enhanced dramatically for the general population, but mostly in progressive chronic pathologies such as MS. AIM: This study aimed to analyze the dynamic of psychological aspects in PwMS pre-pandemic and during pandemic, their connection with clinical outcomes, and with the coronavirus disease. METHODS: We included 95 PwMS with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS), who were first evaluated 4 years before the pandemic outbreak and the second time 2 years after. They completed a series of psychological tests for depression, anxiety, negative automatic thoughts, and stress: Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ). A neurologist evaluated the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and a COVID-19 survey was completed by 78 patients. RESULTS: During the pandemic, depression was encountered in 9.47% of PwMS, only 1.05% with a severe form, and 6.3% with suicidal thoughts, while anxiety was more frequent (39% of cases). Compared to the pre-pandemic period, depression levels remained stable over time (p = 0.55), anxiety was reduced (p<0.001), and stress levels significantly increased (p = 0.001). Some social aspects, such as having sufficient income, reduced the risk for psychological comorbidities. There was a mild correlation between emotional well-being and neurological disability. Of all patients who responded to the survey, 53.84% had previous COVID-19 infections, no patient was hospitalized and 69.23% were vaccinated. There was no relationship between the COVID-19 infection and psychological test results. CONCLUSION: During the pandemic, in the MS population depression remained stable, anxiety decreased, and stress levels were enhanced compared to the pre-pandemic period. Psychiatric comorbidities were not influenced by the coronavirus infection. The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. 2023-08 2023-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10257333/ /pubmed/37320938 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2023.104825 Text en © 2023 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Original Article
Vacaras, Vitalie
Nistor, Cristina
Schiopu, Andra Maria
Vacaras, Cristiana
Marin, Gheorghe-Eduard
Muresanu, Dafin F.
The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title_full The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title_fullStr The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title_full_unstemmed The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title_short The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
title_sort psychological impact of the covid-19 pandemic on people with multiple sclerosis
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10257333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37320938
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2023.104825
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