What drives psychological well-being in early-stage multiple sclerosis?

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating neurological disease with physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that is characterised by recurrent, unpredictable symptom exacerbations. Despite treatment advancements, patients with relapsing-remitting MS remain at high risk for psychopathology. While prior studies have investigated the influence of physical symptoms on psychological well-being, psychological factors are often overlooked.

Methods: This study investigated the association between baseline reports of perceived functioning and one year of weekly reports of psychological well-being (i.e. positive affect), while considering physical disability and weekly reports of symptom intrusiveness and fatigue symptom exacerbations in adult patients with MS (N = 25). A linear mixed-effects model examined these associations over 12 months, across 858 diary time points.

Results: Results indicated greater perceived functioning reported at baseline was associated with higher weekly positive affect, even when considering weekly fatigue symptom exacerbations.

Conclusions: These results suggest a potential novel target for psychological interventions, as perceived functioning can be targeted in treatments focusing on patient self-management and/or self-efficacy.