A recent study, published in Multiple Sclerosis Journal, studied data from more than 200 patients in the year following diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. The incurable condition affects a person’s nerves’ protective covering, causing impairment.
Research showed that a significant percentage of patients reported pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety, with many having more than one condition at the same time.
During the first year after diagnosis, the researcher collected questionnaires from MS patients at six intervals. Half of the 230 individuals reported pain symptoms, 62.6 percent expressed fatigue, 47.4 percent reported depression symptoms, and 38.7 percent showed anxiety symptoms.
Somewhat more than one-fifth of the participants experienced no symptoms. In the first year, however, approximately 60 percent of newly diagnosed patients suffered a cluster of two or more of the identified disorders.
“One symptom can cause or aggravate other symptoms; fatigue, in particular, tends to cluster with pain, depression and anxiety,” said the study author.
Disease-modifying therapy, ranging from oral drugs to injections and infusions, are commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis. The major purpose of these treatments is to prevent symptomatic episodes, often known as relapses, but focused symptom management is also important for increasing quality of life.
Evaluating treatments for these individuals would necessitate strategies that take into account the complicated link between these clustering symptoms, according to co-author Anna Kratz, Ph.D., associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine.
“Clusters of symptoms as seen in many patients in the first year after MS diagnosis can seem challenging but may also present opportunity to identify treatments that address multiple symptoms at once,” Kratz said. “For instance, antidepressants can help with both mood and somatic symptoms. When clinicians see these clusters of symptoms, their minds should turn to the options that interdisciplinary rehabilitation care can offer to address multiple symptoms at once.”
The researchers also noticed that the course of the patients’ symptoms changed during the length of the one-year observational period. Some people who did not experience pain or tiredness in the first month after their diagnosis felt it months later, while others who were depressed or anxious in the beginning did not experience the same symptoms later that year.
These modifications, however, were very minor over time. The findings can provide some hope to patients with mild symptom burdens soon after diagnosis, as they signal that a person should not expect a major increase in symptoms during the first year after diagnosis, according to Kratz.
The researchers came to the conclusion that future research should look into how changes in symptom severity over time connect to disease activity, impairment, and treatment.
Image Credit: GEtty