Abstract
Depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) are common symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and are highly correlated with poor quality of life. Managing DAS among such patients can improve their quality of life (QoL), empowering them with improved autonomy, self-care, independency, and ability to perform daily activities. This study is aimed at examining the effectiveness of the Benson Relaxation Technique (BRT) on reducing DAS among patients diagnosed with MS in Jordan. This quasiexperimental study of 105 Jordanian patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis tested an intervention group (60 patients) who received BRT and a control group (45 patients) who received normal treatment. Data were collected from January 2021 to April 2021, using the Arabic version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS21). The intervention group was instructed to perform the BRT two times a day for 10 minutes at home for eight weeks at two specific times, with 7-8-hour intervals between each episode. STROBE guidelines were followed in reporting the review. At the baseline comparison, there was no statistical difference between the interventional and control groups with regard to DAS. The levels of DAS between the two groups after three months of the last sessions of the intervention (postintervention) were compared. The results showed that the intervention group had significantly lower levels of DAS compared to the control group. The levels of the DAS were significantly lower for the intervention group postintervention. Adding relaxation techniques to the therapeutic routine is a cost-effective complementary treatment to decrease DAS among MS patients and improve their QoL. Relevance to Practice. This study provides a baseline of data that could facilitate further investigations in the future to improve the quality of services delivered to such patients and thus their QoL and satisfaction.
Highlights
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease affecting a patient’s central nervous system
The results showed that the intervention group had significantly lower levels of DAS compared to the control group (Table 2)
Improving the levels of DAS is extremely important for the treatment of MS patients (MSPs), as these conditions often present with various other comorbidities that can affect patients’ quality of life (QoL)
Summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease affecting a patient’s central nervous system. The most common physical symptoms reported in the literature include pain, Depression Research and Treatment fatigue, tingling sensation, weak bladder control, visual problems, vocal changes, difficulty breathing, muscle weakness, weak bones, and gastrointestinal dysfunction [4]. Cognitive impairment such as deficits affecting recent memory, attention span, and problems in learning new materials affect around two-thirds of patients [7]. In Oman, depressive symptoms were found to affect almost half of the patients, and anxiety symptoms were reported in more than a third of MSPs [10]. The study showed that 47% of the patients had moderate depression, almost 40% had moderate anxiety, and 45% had moderate stress [12]
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