TY - JOUR
TI - The impact of stressful life events on risk of relapse in women with
multiple sclerosis: A prospective study
AU - Mitsonis, Charalampos I.
AU - Zervas, Iannis M.
AU - Mitropoulos,
AU - Panaglotis A.
AU - Dimopoulos, Nikolaos P.
AU - Soldatos, Constantin R.
AU - and Potagas, Constantin M.
AU - Sfagos, Constantin A.
JO - European Psychiatry
PY - 2008
VL - 23
TODO - 7
SP - 497-504
PB - ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER
SN - 0924-9338
TODO - 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2008.06.003
TODO - Multiple sclerosis; Relapse; Risk; Stress attributes; Stressful life
events
TODO - Purpose - The aim of this study were first to examine the general
relation between stressful life events (SLEs) and clinical relapses in
women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and second, to investigate the
relations of the specific stressor attributes of duration, type, and
severity on MS exacerbations.
Methods - Twenty six ambulating women with relapsing-remitting MS were
followed-up for a mean of 56.3 weeks. Patients documented SLEs weekly in
self report diaries which were then collected at regular pre-scheduled
clinic visits every 4 weeks. SLEs were classified as short-term if they
had subjectively no lasting effect and long-term if they had a
subjectively felt psychological impact that lasted at least 10-14 days
after the event. The sverity of SLEs was determined using the Recent
Life Change Questionnaire.
Results - Experiencing three or more SLEs during a 4-week period, was
associated with a 5-fold increase of MS relapse rate (95% Cl 1.7-16.4.
p=0.003). The presence of at lease one long-term SLE was associated with
three times (95% Cl 1.01-9.13, p<0.05) the rate of MS exacerbation
during the following 4 weeks. There was no significant association
between the severity (95% Cl 0.99-1.01. p>0.05) or the type (x(2) =
7.29. df = 5. P > 0.05) of stressor and the risk for relapse.
Conclusion - Ambulatory women with relapsing-remitting MS who experience
cumulative SLEs may be at a greater risk for relapse. Duration is the
only stress attribute that seems to increase the risk for relapsing in
contrast to stress type and stress severity that were not found to
interact with MS exacerbation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights
reserved.
ER -