Emotion dysregulation and distress tolerance in multiple sclerosis patients and healthy individuals

Multiple Sclerosis  impacts on the quality of life of patients even in early phases of illness. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the emotion dysregulation and distress tolerance in people with multiple sclerosis and healthy cases.

This study is a causal comparative study and its statistical society consisted of all patients with multiple sclerosis who referred to Kermanshah MS Society in 2016 and normal cases. In a cinvenient sampling method, 376 cases (201 normal ones and 175 MS patients) were selected. The data collecting tool was Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance questionnaires. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance.

The mean scores of emotion regulation in multiple sclerosis group and control group were 104.02 ±17.90 and 94.12 ± 19.75 respectively. Also, the mean scores of distress tolerance scores in multiple sclerosis patients group was significantly lower than the control group (37.05 ± 9.47 vs 41.41 ± 10.14).

Multiple sclerosis patients have more emotion dysregulation and less distress tolerance compared with the normal people.