Comparison of psychological symptoms of patients with multiple sclerosis and healthy people

Psychological and psychiatric disorders have a high frequency in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, their relationship with MS is complex and the extent to which they might be reactive to countless psychosocial factors, or symptoms resultant of the pathological process itself remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare psychological symptoms in a group of MS patients and compared to healthy controls. The study subjects were MS patients admitted to the Farshchian hospital in Hamadan, Iran. The diagnosis was based on McDonald (2011) criteria. There were 120 patient), aged 34.5 +/- 10.8 (mean +/- SD) years. It was a cross sectional study. The psychological symptoms were assessed using Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). It was found that the MS patients exhibited significantly more psychological symptoms than the healthy controls. The SCL-90 scores of MS patients were significantly higher for somatization, obsession-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, depression and anxiety. The high rate of psychological symptoms in adult MS supports the need for routine psychological screening.