An Investigation of the Psychiatric Aspects of Disseminated Sclerosis

Pseudobulbar affect: an under-recognized and under-treated neurological disorder

“…Ranges of estimated prevalence for PBA and similar syndromes, such as emotional lability as variously defined and identified in published reports are indicated by the vertical gray arrows. 5,10,11,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Prevalence rates determined in the present study with PLACS≥13 and CNS-LS≥13 are indicated by the transverse plot points. The prevalence rates determined with CNS-LS≥21 in the present study were very similar to those for PLACS≥13, and are not shown here to enhance visual clarity.…”

“…1,6 Clinical case and study data have shown that PBA may cause severe distress, embarrassment, and social disability among patients. 3,[7][8][9][10] In addition, studies have shown that patients with PBA or similar syndromes experience an increased incidence of depression, 11 impairments in executive function 12 and sexual function, 13 and ability to perform activities of daily living 14 10,11,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] ). This variability is probably due to differences in the populations studied and in the criteria and methods used for identifying PBA.…”

The relationship of MS to physical trauma and psychological stress [RETIRED]

“…37,38 The results of this study had been reported earlier in preliminary form by Pratt. 54 Although the possibility of an association between MS exacerbation and antecedent stress is discounted in those articles, the actual analysis of the data 66 indicated a marginally significant (p < 0.02) association between job or marital stress with the subsequent occurrence of MS exacerbation (w = 0.22; CI = 0.01 to 0.43). As a result, and despite its prospective nature, this study does not provide conclusive evidence either for or against an association between antecedent stress and MS exacerbation.…”

PRISM: A Novel Research Tool to Assess the Prevalence of Pseudobulbar Affect Symptoms Across Neurological Conditions

“…A study by Kim et al in 148 patients evaluated 2-4 months post stroke also found a significant association of female gender with PBA symptoms (post-stroke emotional incontinence) but not poststroke depression (PSD) [41]. In contrast, most other studies that evaluated potential gender differences have not found an association [20,22,25,30,34,36,37,42,45] or have noted that gender disparity was not an independent predictor of PBA on multivariate analysis [18,44]. Our study did not evaluate other factors that might have accounted for the gender difference noted in those with and without PBA symptoms and it is not clear whether the gender difference is actual or better accounted for by other factors.…”