Inability to Express or Process Emotions Also Prevalent in MS Patients, Study Reports

A significant number of multiple sclerosis patients show signs not only of depression and anxiety, but also of alexithymia — an inability to describe or process emotional responses, a research group in Brazil reported.

The study, “High levels of alexithymia in patients with multiple sclerosis,” published in the journal Dementia & Neuropsychologia, also found that MS patients with depression or anxiety were more likely to show signs of alexithymia.

Psychological difficulties are known to accompany multiple sclerosis, a disease of the nervous system with symptoms that affect both motor and cognitive skills. Depression and anxiety are well-studied psychological ills of MS and known to affect health-related quality of life. Alexithymia — a psychological condition characterized by a marked difficulty in identifying, describing, and expressing emotions — is lesser, although estimated to be prevalent in 10% to 53% of the MS population.

Researchers investigated the prevalence of alexithymia among MS patients compared with healthy peers. They also studied how depression, anxiety, and disability status might affect the prevalence of alexithymia in MS patients.

A total of 180 people with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS; 126 women and 54 men) and 180 healthy volunteers — all with a median age of 37 — participated in the study.

Disability was assessed using the expanded disability status scale (EDSS), which ranges from 0 (low) to 10 (severe disability); the hospital anxiety and depression (HAD) scale was used to determine patients’ anxiety and depression status; and the Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS) was used to assess alexithymia. Median disease duration among patients was eight years, and their median EDSS score was 2.0.

Based on the TAS score, participants had either no alexithymia (score of 51 or lower), were borderline (scores between 52–60), or had alexithymia (a score of 61 or higher).