Abstract
Background & Objectives: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive disease of the central nervous system, which is considered the third leading cause of neurological disabilities. In addition to the biological mechanism involved, the factor that can be effective in psychosomatic diseases such as MS is the psychological factor. What makes this chronic disease important in the field of psychiatry is the wide range of neuropsychiatric aspects of the disorder. One of the important psychological factors is depression. Since these patients have to cope with the stresses of daily life as well as with the stresses caused by the fluctuating and unpredictable symptoms of the disease, the progression of the disease may interfere with work, family life, relationships, and social activities; therefore, another important and effective psychological outcome in patients with MS is poor mental health. Given the impact of the disease on the psychological well–being of the individual and the necessity of finding factors affecting psychological well–being, this research aimed to predict psychological well–being based on depression and mental health in patients with multiple sclerosis in Yazd City, Iran.
Methods: The present study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive–analytical, based on the research methodology. The statistical population of the study included all patients with MS and members of the Yazd MS Association. Based on the inquiry from this center, there were about 1800 people. Regarding the medical documents and documents from the center for special patients in Yazd Province in 2021–2022, and among the people who volunteered to participate in the research based on the Krejcie and Morgan table, 317 people were selected as the research sample by direct sampling. The inclusion criteria include a history of at least 1 year of disease and as diagnosed by a specialist doctor, having a medical record at the center for special diseases and MS patients in Yazd Province, having at least a diploma, aged between 20 and 60 years, and no history of hospitalization in a mental hospital or the history of taking psychiatric drugs, especially antidepressants. The exclusion criterion was failure to complete the questionnaire. For gathering data, we used the Ryff Scale of Psychological Well–Being (Ryff, 1989), the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961), and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). In the present study, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. For descriptive analysis of the data, descriptive statistics indicators, including mean and standard deviation, were used. To examine the relationship between depression and mental health with psychological well–being, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the predictive role. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 21 software. The significance level of statistical tests was set at 0.05.
Results: The results showed that in patients with multiple sclerosis, there was a significant and negative correlation between depression and psychological well–being (r=–0.43, p<0.001) and a significant and negative correlation between mental health and psychological well–being (r=–0.63, p<0.001). The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that depression (β=–0.58, p<0.001) and mental health (β=–0.89, p<0.001) had a significant predictive role in predicting and explaining psychological well–being in patients with multiple sclerosis; also, based on the adjusted coefficient of determination, 28.8% of the changes in psychological well–being in these patients were predictable based on depression and mental health.
Conclusion: According to the findings, depression and mental health predict psychological well–being in patients with multiple sclerosis; therefore, it is recommended that specialists in this field pay attention to the variables mentioned above.
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