- Psychiatric issues may be early indicators of multiple sclerosis, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.
- They are a new addition to a growing list of symptoms, including sleep disorders, fatigue, anemia, and pain, that may precede multiple sclerosis by years.
- Although such symptoms do not directly predict the disease, their frequent appearance in the years preceding the illness adds to experts’ understanding of the life-changing condition.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia suggest in a new study that they have identified what may be an unreported early indicator of multiple sclerosis (MS) years before its symptoms appear: psychiatric issues, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
The study is published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the current study, the authors analyzed administrative and clinical data from British Columbia in Canada. The researchers looked at a quartet of populations starting five years before diagnosis of MS. In their “administrative cohort” — based on claims of demyelination — were 6,863 cases of MS and 31,865 controls. In the “clinical cohort” — the onset of MS symptoms — there were 966 cases of MS and 4,534 controls.
The study’s authors also observed that healthcare usage, including psychiatric sessions, prescriptions, and hospitalizations, was higher among people in the administrative cohort who eventually developed MS. Their frequency, compared to controls, increased each year until MS symptoms appeared. These findings weren’t observed in the clinical cohort.
The study follows previous research from the study’s lead author, Dr. Helen Tremlett, that first proposed a “prodromal period” for MS, preceding significant MS symptoms in which indicators of eventual disease may appear. This research suggested that sleep disorders, fatigue, anemia, and pain may be prodromal symptoms.
Prodromal periods have been…
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