Emotional impact of multiple sclerosis: Recent findings and suggestions for future research.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is believed to impose a severely deleterious emotional impact on patients and their families. A review of the recent research literature indicates that few controlled investigations have been done to support the assumption. Recent data have indicated that two factors—functional loss (imposed by the increased physical disability produced by MS) and disease activity (exacerbation and progression of symptoms)—have been identified as contributors to increased emotional distress in MS patients. However, theoretical formulations concerning the specific mechanisms by which these or other potential determinants may produce emotional distress appear, largely, to have been ignored. Thus, this article identifies a number of fundamental conceptual and methodological issues. Potential solutions for the problems that they introduce are suggested, and a provisional model of the mechanisms involved is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)