Psychiatria pre prax 5/2005

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND DEPRESSION

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a multifocal autoimmune disorder of CNS, characterized besides neurological signs also by both cognitive and affective dysfunction. In old text-books, MS is joined with euphoria which is nearly no more seen in clinical practice. On the contrary, at least 50% of MS patients experience depression during the course of their disease. Depression is very often underdiagnosed and undertreated. Part of the pathophysiology of depression in MS is the inflammation itself. Despite of this, depression in MS patients is very well treatable with modern antidepressants. The treatment of depression substantially improves the quality of life of MS patients.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, depression, SSRI, immunopathogenesis, amitriptylin.