Prevalence of mental disorders is higher in patients with multiple sclerosis than in the general population or in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in France.

Abstract

BackgroundMental disorders (MDs) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients decreases treatment adherence and quality of life, and increases the risk of disability progression and care consumption.ObjectiveThis study was to assess the prevalence of MDs in MS patients compared with healthy controls (HC) of the French general population and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.MethodsThe 2015 prevalence of MDs for MS patients, RA patients and general population was estimated using a random population-based data sample from ‘National Inter-Scheme Information System on Health Insurance’ in the 2011–2015 period. Two control groups (1:5 ratio for the HC and 1:1 for the RA group) were matched to the MS group for year of birth, gender, area of residence and health insurance scheme.ResultsA total of 1145 MS patients were identified (sex ratio of 2.5 (F/M); median age 50 years). The prevalence of MDs was higher in the population of patients with MS (37.3%) than in the French general population (13.6%), and to a lesser extent in the RA group (21.1%) leading to the prevalence ratios of 2.8 (95% confidence intervals (CIs) 2.5–3.0) and 1.9 (95% CI 1.7–2.3), respectively.ConclusionsThis study confirmed that MS patients are at a higher risk of MDs than the French general population or RA patients.