Frequency of anxiety in myasthenia gravis

Symptoms of anxiety are common in many chronic medical conditions. Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a chronic neuromuscular condition characterized by fatigable weakness; few studies to date have examined the occurrence of anxiety in patients with MG and related it to anxiety in other chronic conditions. Sixty-nine patients were given a set of self-administered questionnaires, which included the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The BAI was scored and showed that 55% of the patients had scores suggestive of anxiety. Forty percent was mildly anxious, 12% were moderately anxious, and 3% were severely anxious. This study suggests that anxiety is at least as common in patients with MG as in patients with other chronic medical conditions. It also suggests that the BAI is a clinically useful tool for assessing anxiety in such a population.