The Association of Sever Stressful Life Events and Multiple Sclerosis

Stressful life events have suggested as one of etiologic cause of the disease from the middle of last century, but controversies still is going on. This study is a case- control study conducted on 100 MS patients in neurology clinic of Shariati Hospital during one year. History of stressful life events one year before beginning of the disease was questioned. These events, according to Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, were severe and affected the disease progression. The analysis of data was performed using SPSS 15. The mean age of patients was 30.9 ± 7.1. Most of them (n=87) had relapsing- remitting MS. 51% of patients and 26% of controls had stressful life events (P<0.001). Odd's Ratio with confidence interval of 95% was 2.71. The most frequent stressful events were family problems and death of first degree relatives. This study showed that stressful life events were significantly more prevalent in MS, but we cannot conclude that stress lonely is a cause of MS. Although, major stress along with multiple other risk factors may be related to MS.