Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms
Mental Problems
Mental problems can and do occur with multiple sclerosis.
Unfortunately, many, many, people who have multiple sclerosis or who are currently undergoing medical investigation, have become hypersensitive to the issue of mental illness and therefore may be reluctant to seek treatment.
This is usually due to the 'it's all in your head' approach taken by many doctors when the patient first seeks medical help.
Since the average age of clinical onset of multiple sclerosis is 33 years of age, and the average age of diagnosis 37 years of age, there is typically, a four year interval during which the process of sensitization develops.
Suffering from the full physical, emotional and cognitive onslaught delivered by multiple sclerosis, while being dismissed as having a purely psychosomatic illness, is not conducive to objectivity by the patient when the subject of mental illness does arise.
However, the issue remains. Multiple sclerosis does cause mental illness and psychiatric conditions, other than depression, and these psychiatric conditions are relatively common.
The incidence of depression in people with multiple sclerosis is
very high at around 50% of patients developing the condition at some
stage of the illness.* It is, however, incorrect to
conclude that depression is simply a patient reaction to having a
disabling, incurable, and difficult-to-predict neurological disease.ŧ
More serious psychiatric disturbances may also occur, ranging from affective disorders, mania, personality disturbances and more rarely, psychosis.Ψ
* Minden SL, Schiffer RB. Affective
disorders in multiple sclerosis: review and recommendations for
clinical research. Arch Neurol 1990;47:98 –104.
ŧ Schiffer RB, Babigian HM. Behavioral
disturbance in multiple sclerosis, temporal lobe epilepsy and
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: an epidemiologic study. Arch Neurol
1984;41:1067–9.
Ψ Feinstein, A. The Neuropsychiatry of
Multiple Sclerosis: review. Can J Psychiatry 2003;49:157–163
Early Symptoms
Arms and Legs
| Foot Drop | Paralysis | Spasticity | Tremor |
Head and Neck
| Adjustment Disorder | Balance | Brain Fog | Cognitive Problems | Concentration | Depression | Dizziness | Emotions | Euphoria | Language | L'Hermittes Sign | Memory Problems | Mental Problems | Optic Neuritis | Paranoia | Psychosis | Speech Problems | Vertigo | Vision Problems |
Body and Body as a whole
| Bladder | Bowel | Fatigue | Numbness | Pain | Sexual Dysfunction | Uhthoff's Phenomenon |
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