In many patients, multiple sclerosis and depression are closely associated. This should not come as a surprise. MS is a highly stressful disease which also affects the nervous tissue and is treated using drugs that have powerful side effects. As a consequence, there are a number of different ways in which the disease can trigger depression.
Depression and Multiple Sclerosis: The Causes
As alluded to in the above paragraph, multiple sclerosis depression can be triggered by the stress that comes from living with multiple sclerosis. This has to do with the fact that MS is a chronic, little-understood disease with no known conventional medical cure. Furthermore, in many cases, the prognosis is bleak: patients have to contend with the fact that they are likely to end up with at least one of many possible forms of disability. They may lose part of their vision, their mobility, and may suffer cognitive impairment. This is not the sort of information that a patient can process overnight and get over quickly. It takes time, effort, medication, therapy, and many ups and downs before patients are able to come up with healthy routines that enable them to cope with multiple sclerosis and depression.
The second instance involving the association of multiple sclerosis and depression, hinted at in the first paragraph, is the depression borne of physical changes to the patient’s nervous system or to the patient’s neuroendocrinal and immune systems. Multiple sclerosis has the capacity to progressively damage these systems: the development of lesions affects the nervous tissue, subsequently affecting the systems and organs that are regulated by that nervous tissue.
Among patients with multiple sclerosis and depression, a third factor is sometimes implicated in the development of depression: It is the medication that MS patients take for the management and treatment of their condition. The drugs taken to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis can have adverse side effects on MS patients. In some cases, these side effects include depression. If it is possible to substitute the implicated MS drugs with alternatives, then that is an option for patients to pursue with their doctors. If this is not possible, then patients may have to take additional medication to treat their depression.
Multiple Sclerosis: Depression Treatment
Treating depression in multiple sclerosis patients requires the assistance of a medical professional. Clinical depression is an illness. Hence, treating it will entail the use of medical therapy. Such therapy is likely to include antidepressant medication. The role of the medication is to correct any chemical imbalances that may be behind the multiple sclerosis depression. This is bound to make a big difference, especially where patients’ cognitive abilities, insomnia and mood swings are concerned. In addition to taking medication, MS patients should undergo psychotherapy with mental health care professionals.
There are other steps MS patients can take to support their strides towards better mental health. They include reaching out to supportive friends and family for help, eating a healthy diet and trying to get sufficient sleep.
