(2008) who reported a lower prevalence, at only 13.8% in a population of patients from Italy. The discrepancies could likely be explained by the different not clinical www.selleckchem.com/products/Enzastaurin.html characteristics of our respective samples (e.g., lower level of handicap and higher rate of male patients in Bodini’s study), or by cultural differences, or other factors that remain to be elucidated. As previously reported by several authors (Bodini et al. 2008; Chahraoui et al. 2008; Gay et al. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 2010),

we observed a relation between alexithymia and both anxiety and depression, and at both timepoints of this study. The rates of anxiety and depression were consistently high in this study, with around 40% of MS patients suffering from anxiety problems at both

T1 and T2, and this finding was stable over time. Conversely, the rate of depression tended to decrease between the two evaluations, falling from 40% to 26%. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Multivariate logistic regression showed that alexithymia seems to be more strongly associated with anxiety. These results underline the similar manner in which alexithymia and anxiety are associated, as well as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the stability of these disorders over time. The great emotional difficulty experienced by patients with MS has consistently been reported in the literature (Feinstein et al. 1999; Dahl et al. 2009) and the persistence of emotional disturbances over time has previously been highlighted by other authors (Arnett and Randolph 2006; Beal et al. 2007). It is possible that this persistence arises from a permanent incapacity of these patients to cope with the disease, particularly as prognosis is very uncertain in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical terms of progression of handicap (Giordano et al. 2011). The unpredictable nature of the progression of MS appears to be a central component in understanding the persistence of the emotional problems. Indeed, MS is characterized by the occurrence of attacks (relapses) of worsening neurological function that are highly unpredictable, and the patient cannot anticipate either the occurrence of an attack, or the type or intensity of symptoms. Predicting

disease progression Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is, therefore, a dimension of MS that is extremely challenging. From a clinical point of view, some patients may experience several relapses in the same year, whereas others may go 10 years without an attack. Furthermore, while some Brefeldin_A attacks can have more or less severe effects that may partially or totally recede, others may herald a functional deficit, such as impaired motor function that can remain and become permanent. While the relapsing-remitting form of MS highlights, in particular, the uncertainty experienced by patients with MS (Montreuil and Lyon-Caen 1993), the progressive form, with its slowly but constantly worsening neurological function, also leaves patients feeling insecure and uncertain about their future, once the symptoms or irreversible deficits begin to appear.