DEPRESSION IN PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AT A REFERENCE CENTER

Introduction: Depression is common in individuals with MS due to the diagnosis of the disease, the effect of medication, or the reaction of the personality to the pathology and its consequences. Objectives: The study aimed to verify the prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients with MS treated at a referral center and to correlate them with age, sex, clinical form and disability status. Methods: It is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach. Results: Were evaluated 140 patients with MS that answered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and classified them according to the scores obtained, 89 (63.6%) did not have depressive symptoms, 40 (28.6%) had mild depressive symptoms, 9 (6.4%) moderate depressive symptoms and 2 (1.4%) severe depressive symptoms. In relation to clinical form of MS, regarding the presence of symptoms of depression, in which of the 102 patients with the RRMS form, 30 (29.4%) have depressive symptoms, the two patients with PPMS have symptoms of depression (100%) and the 36 patients with the SPMS form, 19 (52.8%) have depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms did not have any relationship with gender and state of functional disability. Conclusion: Depressive symptoms in patients with MS were related to older age and the clinical form of the patients. In view of this, more prospective studies are needed on the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with MS, comparing new drugs, since this is a scarce topic in the literature, but of great importance for the physical and mental health of these patients.