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Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a serious and debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by muscle weakness, shortness of breath, and issues affecting the eyes, limbs, throat, and speech. Given the intense physical toll of the disease, it is unsurprising that higher rates of depression are observed amo...

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Autores principales: Villa, Nicole Ann E, Fiore, Gina Maria P, Espiridion, Eduardo D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10505266/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37724206
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43682
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author Villa, Nicole Ann E
Fiore, Gina Maria P
Espiridion, Eduardo D
author_facet Villa, Nicole Ann E
Fiore, Gina Maria P
Espiridion, Eduardo D
author_sort Villa, Nicole Ann E
collection PubMed
description Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a serious and debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by muscle weakness, shortness of breath, and issues affecting the eyes, limbs, throat, and speech. Given the intense physical toll of the disease, it is unsurprising that higher rates of depression are observed among MG patients. We present a case involving a 30-year-old female patient who was admitted to the hospital for MG exacerbation and had a psychiatric consultation for worsening depression symptoms. The patient acknowledged symptoms of sad mood, crying spells, anhedonia, fatigue, insomnia, and inappropriate guilt. She admits to psychosocial stressors of her declining health, recent job loss, and low self-esteem due to weight gain. Past medical history includes a thymectomy and a total thyroidectomy that caused postsurgical-acquired hypothyroidism. She is currently on prednisone and pyridostigmine for her MG. The patient has many potential causes of her increased depressive symptoms, including her medications, psychosocial stressors, and her past medical history, in addition to her MG. However, the literature shows higher incidence rates of depression in MG patients compared to both healthy controls and controls with other comparable chronic conditions, as well as shows a positive association between increased depressive symptoms and MG severity. Thus, these findings prompt the consideration of possible physiological interplay between the two diseases and encourage further research into the association between MG and depression.
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spelling pubmed-105052662023-09-18 Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study Villa, Nicole Ann E Fiore, Gina Maria P Espiridion, Eduardo D Cureus Neurology Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a serious and debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by muscle weakness, shortness of breath, and issues affecting the eyes, limbs, throat, and speech. Given the intense physical toll of the disease, it is unsurprising that higher rates of depression are observed among MG patients. We present a case involving a 30-year-old female patient who was admitted to the hospital for MG exacerbation and had a psychiatric consultation for worsening depression symptoms. The patient acknowledged symptoms of sad mood, crying spells, anhedonia, fatigue, insomnia, and inappropriate guilt. She admits to psychosocial stressors of her declining health, recent job loss, and low self-esteem due to weight gain. Past medical history includes a thymectomy and a total thyroidectomy that caused postsurgical-acquired hypothyroidism. She is currently on prednisone and pyridostigmine for her MG. The patient has many potential causes of her increased depressive symptoms, including her medications, psychosocial stressors, and her past medical history, in addition to her MG. However, the literature shows higher incidence rates of depression in MG patients compared to both healthy controls and controls with other comparable chronic conditions, as well as shows a positive association between increased depressive symptoms and MG severity. Thus, these findings prompt the consideration of possible physiological interplay between the two diseases and encourage further research into the association between MG and depression. Cureus 2023-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10505266/ /pubmed/37724206 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43682 Text en Copyright © 2023, Villa et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neurology
Villa, Nicole Ann E
Fiore, Gina Maria P
Espiridion, Eduardo D
Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title_full Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title_fullStr Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title_full_unstemmed Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title_short Insights Into the Association Between Myasthenia Gravis and Depression: A Clinical Case Study
title_sort insights into the association between myasthenia gravis and depression: a clinical case study
topic Neurology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10505266/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37724206
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43682
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