Perceived stress and social support in a large population of people with Multiple Sclerosis recruited online through COVID 19 pandemic.

Bonavita, Simona; Sparaco, Maddalena; Russo, Antonio; Borriello, Giovanna; Lavorgna, Luigi

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 emergency may cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and as concerns people with MS (pwMS) chronic exposure to a wide range of challenging life events has shown to be correlated with worsening of neurological symptoms, increased lesion burden on brain MRI and relapses. The aim was to investigate perceived stress, depression, perceived social support, habits, and behavior changes in pwMS through COVID19 in comparison to control people. METHODS A web-based survey was posted on SMsocialnetwork.com to investigate perceived stress (using Perceived Stress Scale), depression (with PHQ-2), and perceived social support (using Social Provision Scale-10 item) in pwMS and control group through COVID 19 pandemic. A secondary group of people with migraine has been investigated. RESULTS 1286 answers from 612 pwMS and 674 control people were included in the final analysis. The answers from 318 people with migraine have been included for a secondary analysis. A higher proportion of pwMS were depressed (43.1% vs 23.1%; p<0.001), had high level of perceived stress (58% vs 39.8%; p<0.001) and felt significantly less social support (median 33 vs 35; Q1-Q3 28-36 vs 32-37; p<0.001).) compared to the control group. A higher percentage of people with migraine were depressed (50% vs 43%, p=0.04) compared to pwMS. CONCLUSIONS Considering the negative impact that prolonged stress may have on clinical and radiological disease activity of pwMS, and bearing in mind that a beneficial effect has been demonstrated and achieved with stress management, we suggest promoting stress control in these patients during the COVID19 pandemic.