Insomnia among non-depressed multiple sclerosis patients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundInsomnia is a common problem that affects approximately 50% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), who suffer from sleep disturbances. In general, persons with insomnia are at a higher risk of developing depression. This study was conducted to assess insomnia among non-depressed MS patients in Saudi Arabia.MethodsBased on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), those who scored 4 or less for depression out of 598 MS patients were selected (n = 112). A cross-sectional study was conducted to interview 112 non-depressed MS patients in order to assess insomnia among them. A data collection sheet has been designed by the researchers. It comprised socio-demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, area of residence, and marital status) and clinical variables (disease duration, age at disease onset, previous diagnosis of depression, and used antidepressant drugs). Insomnia was assessed by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), while severity of illness was assessed using the Patient Determined Disease Steps (PDDS).ResultsA total of 72 patients (64.3%) were females, and 62 (55.4%) were married. Their mean age was 32.6 years (SD = 8.9), ranging from 15 to 56 years. As for educational level, 64 (57.1%) had a Bachelor degree. The mean age at disease onset was 26 years (SD = 8.9). The mean duration of illness was 1.9 years. Symptoms of insomnia were present among 14 patients (12.5%). No statistical significance was found between the mean PDSS of insomnia and non-insomnia patients. Significant differences were present between insomnia and non-insomnia patients as regards their education level (P = 0.005) and use of antidepressant drugs (P = 0.008).ConclusionsPrevalence of insomnia among non-depressed MS patients is low. Insomnia is associated with educational and use of antidepressants. Further research is needed to assess severity of different types of insomnia among depressed and non-depressed MS patients.

Sleep Disorders in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients

“…Our findings show significant difference of education level concerning its possible influence on sleep quality in patients with RRMS. This result is consistent with data of Alhazzani A.A. et al that the level of education is considered as a risk factor for development of insomnia on a condition of absence of depression [23]. We found no valuable difference between both groups concerning gender, that does not match with previously reported results that SD in MS patients are prevalently associated with female gender [9].…”

Fatigue and Self-management among Multiple Sclerosis Patients

“…As regard to marital status, around two third were single, this finding was in contrast with [24] who mentioned that more than half of respondents (55.4%) were married.…”

“…Regarding diagnosed years with MS, two third of MS patients had a diagnosed durations from one up to five years, this in line with [21] who emphasized that the mean time interval between the first symptoms and disease diagnosis was around two years. While, [24] reported that the mean duration of the disease was around five years.…”

Sleep Abnormalities in Multiple Sclerosis

“…In addition other articles related to Health and Sleep Physiology were included to support our general arguments. Articles were reviewed by two independent reviewers and a total of 37 articles were selected for inclusion in the present review [4,14,16,17,18,19,22,23,24,25,26,29,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,41,42,43,49,50,51,53,55,56,61,62,63,64,66,67,70].…”

“…In a recent study it was reported that 42% of MS patients had difficulty in initiating sleep, 53% reported extended awakenings, and 58% reported staying awake for the rest of the time [38]. In general, persons with insomnia are at a higher risk of developing depression while the prevalence of insomnia in non-depressed MS patients is much lower compared to all MS patients (12.5%) [39].…”