The study, published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression may be part of a prodromal phase of MS — a set of preliminary symptoms and clues that arise before classic MS symptoms.
“For a long time, it was thought that MS only really began clinically when a person experienced their first demyelinating event, such as in the form of vision problems,” said senior author Dr. Helen Tremlett, professor of neurology at UBC and member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. “But we’ve come to understand there is a whole period preceding those events where the disease presents itself in more indirect ways.”
