What drives psychological well-being in early-stage multiple sclerosis?

Background

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating neurological disease with physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that is characterised by recurrent, unpredictable symptom exacerbations. Despite treatment advancements, patients with relapsing-remitting MS remain at high risk for psychopathology. While prior studies have investigated the influence of physical symptoms on psychological well-being, psychological factors are often overlooked.

Methods

This study investigated the association between baseline reports of perceived functioning and one year of weekly reports of psychological well-being (i.e. positive affect), while considering physical disability and weekly reports of symptom intrusiveness and fatigue symptom exacerbations in adult patients with MS (N = 25). A linear mixed-effects model examined these associations over 12 months, across 858 diary time points.

Results

Results indicated greater perceived functioning reported at baseline was associated with higher weekly positive affect, even when considering weekly fatigue symptom exacerbations.

Conclusions

These results suggest a potential novel target for psychological interventions, as perceived functioning can be targeted in treatments focusing on patient self-management and/or self-efficacy.