Investigating the relationship between stress, anxiety and depression with the quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease can affect all aspects of a person's life. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between stress, anxiety and depression with the quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis. MS was performed.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2018-2019 on 245 patients with multiple sclerosis in Shahrekord city. Non-random sampling method was used and data collection tool was Depression, Anxiety and Stress Questionnaire (DASS-21) and Quality of Life Questionnaire in Multiple Sclerosis Patients (MISIS-29). The data were analyzed through spss 20 software.

In the present study, only 26.6% of patients experienced high quality of life, and 30.5% of patients had severe to moderate anxiety, 13/8% moderate stress, and 34.2% moderate and severe depression. There was a significant relationship between the stress and anxiety of the patients and their jobs (p<0.05) and also there was a significant difference between the quality of life and the education of the patients (p<0.05). A significant relationship was observed between the state of stress, depression and anxiety of the patients with the quality of life and with the physical and mental subscales (P<0.001).

The results indicated the prevalence of mental disorders in patients with MS, which has affected the quality of life of patients. Therefore, providing suitable interventions to deal with or adapt to these symptoms and ultimately improve the quality of life in multiple sclerosis patients seems necessary.