Anxiety in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Anxiety disorders are quite common, and frequently overlooked, in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This is often due to the difficulty differentiating anxiety from personality correlates or reactive tendencies in patients with neurologic disease. This chapter offers the consulting psychiatrist guidelines for providing psychological support to patients with MS at various stages of their disease. DSM-IV-based differential diagnosis, psychotherapeutic techniques, behavioral interventions, and pharmacological support (including the newer alternative therapies) are reviewed. The physical, functional, and symbolic losses caused by this chronic and progressive disease are considered in the broader context of individual patients' lives. Particular attention has been given to specific pharmacological treatment of steroid-induced anxiety. This is essential knowledge for the consulting psychiatrist. The overlap between depressive symptoms, manic symptoms and cognitive changes in MS patients is reviewed with special emphasis on the structural correlates. Current neuro-imaging techniques, including emerging technologies such as gadolinium enhancement, single photon emission computed tomography and brain electrical mapping (BEAM), now provide a far more accurate view of brain damage in MS. This permits diagnosis of the disease much earlier, and is also beginning to show correlation between neuropsychiatric clinical findings, and the nature and location of demyelinating plaques in the brains of MS patients. This chapter seeks to clearly define the associations between anxiety disorders and cerebral involvement in MS patients, suggesting that common neurological and biochemical mechanisms are more extensive than generally suspected. It is hoped that this information will aid clinicians in more accurately diagnosing and effectively treating anxiety in MS patients.