Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Retrospective Study on the Impact of Glatiramer Acetate

Abstract

Objective: It has been reported that of disease-modifying therapies used in treatment of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) may affect mood of the patients. This study aims to investigate the impact of glatiramer acetate (GA) on depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with RRMS. Methods: The study included 31 patients who were admitted to the neurology clinic, and who were diagnosed with RRMS. To assess depressive and anxiety symptoms in the patients before and after the treatment with GA was used the Center Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), respectively. Results: Before the treatment, based on the scales CES-D and HAD-Depression scores, 18 (58.1%) and 17 (54.8%) patients had depression, respectively and based on HAD-Anxiety 15 (48.4%) patients had anxiety. After the treatment, the same numbers were 8 (25.8%), 9 (29.0%), and 7 (22.6%), respectively. The statistical analyses indicated that the mean scores of CES-D (t=4.51, P=0.000), HAD-Depression (t=2.91, P=0.007), HAD-Anxiety (t=2.78, P=0.009) and HAD-Total (t=3.15, P=0.004) significantly decreased from the onset of treatment to the end of treatment. Conclusion: Results of the present study suggest that GA may be useful effects on depressive and anxiety symptoms rather than negative effects in RRMS patients.

Keywords

• Multiple sclerosis
• glatiramer acetate
• depression
• anxiety

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