Anxiety and depression affect performance on the symbol digit modalities test over time in MS and other immune disorders.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Longitudinal studies assessing depression and anxiety effects on cognition in multiple sclerosis (MS) are limited.

Objective

We tested whether within-person fluctuations in symptoms of depression or anxiety over time affect cognition in persons with MS, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and a lifetime history of depression/anxiety disorders (DEP/ANX) but without an immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID).

Methods

We followed participants (MS: 255, IBD: 247, RA: 154, and DEP/ANX: 306) for 3 years. Annually, they completed the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and cognitive tests including the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT). We evaluated associations of elevated symptoms (scores ⩾ 11) of anxiety (HADS-A) and dep

SUBMITTER: Marrie RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8226371 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature