Quality of Life Study in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Depression

Abstract

Background: quality of life (QOL) considered an integral characteristic of patient’s physical, psychological, emotional and social functioning. An improvement of QOL is one of the tasks of therapeutical intervention in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The aim was to study QoL of patients with MS and depression, using different instruments of QoL assessment. Patients and Methods: the study made up 203 MS-patients (56 males and 147 females) aged from 15–60 years (mean age 39.7 ± 10.91). The diagnosis of MS established on criteria of W. McDonald (2010, 2017). There were 113 patients with MS and depression. One group of comparison included 90 MS-patients without depression. The other compared group consisted from 70 depressive patients without neurological disease. The mean age of 52 healthy persons was 29.25 ± 5.12. QOL was assessed using The Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54). The study presents comparative assessments of the conducted SF-36 and MSQoL-54 questionnaires, which show that their use helps to assess the quality of life of patients with health disorders in MS patients with depression. Each of methods supplements information about the condition of patients, depending on the purpose and nosology. Conclusion: both questionnaires could be used for dynamic monitoring of changes in the quality of life in patients with MS with depression, as well as to determine the impact of the disease on a person and to seek for adequate ways of social and psychiatric care and rehabilitation of patients.