Abstract
Objective: Our aim was to evaluate life satisfaction in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and its association with depression, anxiety, cognitive difficulties and severity of disability. Subjects and methods: We assessed life satisfaction with Questionnaire of Life Satisfaction (QLS), cognitive difficulties with Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Screening Questionnaire (MSNQ), depression and anxiety with Beck Depression Inventory (BD.) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) in 60 patients with CIS and 42 healthy volunteers.
The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was used to evaluate severity of disability in patients with CIS. Results: We found lower total QLS score and lower specific QLS subscores (evaluation of health, marriage and partnership and sexuality) in patients with CIS compared to controls (p <= 0.048).
Patients with CIS had higher BDI and BAI scores compared to controls (p <= 0.026). We also found negative correlation between scores for BDI, BAI and MSNQ, total QLS score and the specific QLS subscores in patients with CIS (r(sp) <= -0.260; p <= 0.045).
EDSS was negatively correlated with QLS subscore "evaluation of work and employment" (r(sp) = -0.267; p = 0.041). Conclusions: In this study, we found lower life satisfaction in patients with CIS who are at high risk of developing multiple sclerosis.
Lower life satisfaction in patients with CIS was more strongly associated with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms and cognitive difficulties than with severity of disability.