Frequency of Covid-19 Infection and The Disease Profile in Patients Followed with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Objective: For a long time immunomodulatory / immunosuppressive drugs have been used to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). These treatments are known to suppress the immune system and create susceptibility to infections. In our study, it was aimed to review the severity and frequency of COVID-19 disease in MS patients who received immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive treatments during the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and also to evaluate whether they were adversely affected in terms of psychological outcomes. Material and Methods: Participants consisted of MS patients who acquired COVID-19 (group 1) aged 18-65, using disease-modifying treatments (DMT) with follow-up in a neurology outpatient the clinic and the other two control groups consisted of similar ages and genders. One of the other two groups is MS patients who have not had COVID-19 (group 2), the other group consisted of patients who had COVID-19 and did not have MS (group 3). MS profile, coronavirus anxiety scale (CAS), and Beck depression inventory (BDI) scales between groups 1 and 2; COVID-19 profile between groups 1 and 3 compared. Results: As a result of comparing the MS disease profile of the 1st and 2nd groups and in terms of the COVID-19 disease profile of the 1st and 3rd groups, there was no statistically a significant difference in these paired comparison groups (p> 0.05). Conclusions: It was concluded that DMT use does not increase the severity of COVID-19 and having COVID-19 does not cause any additional changes in the psychiatric status of MS patients, since no a statistically significant difference was observed in the 2 MS group and 2 COVID-19 group comparison.