The Survey of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Its Association with Eating Attitudes

Context: Multiple Sclerosis and its treatments have been shown to have a negative psychological effect on many MS patients. Infact living with a chronic disease with an unpredictable outcome may cause psychiatric symptoms such as Obsessive-Compulsive disorder and serious impairment in eating attitudes Therefore, this study was designed with the aim of determinating of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms in patients with Multiple Sclerosis and its association with eating attitudes. Methods: This was a descriptive correlational study which was conducted in MS clinic located at the Ayatollah Kashani Hospital affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2013. Of MS patients in remitting course that referred to MS clinic Two hundred and ten patients were selected and completed Demographic characteristic questionnaire, Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and Maudsley Obsessive- Compulsive Questionnaire. The SPSS software, version11, was used to conduct statistical tests including t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation. Results: The mean scores of age, body mass index (BMI) and duration of illness were (33.96 ± 9.5) Years (21.6 ± 3.6) Kg.m2 and (24.3 ± 6.3) months, respectively. Most patients were married (66.1%), without university education (62.8%) and with moderate incomes (63%). Majority of the patients had received beta-interferon) (65%) as their main treatment. In addition, mean ± SD of eating disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder scores were 4.9 ± 0.8and17.6 ± 4.5, respectively. Also 48.1 % of MS patients had the Obsessive-Compulsive disorder symptoms and 19.1% showed eating disorder. There was a significant positive correlation between the Obsessive-Compulsive score and eating disorder scores(r=0.32, p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that majority of the patients with MS had experienced symptoms of eating disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. The findings of this study can assist health care team in order to pay more attention to eating disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder in patients with multiple sclerosis and also considering nutritional problems during disease in their evaluations. Furthermore there was correlation between the Eating Disorder Symptoms and Obsessive Compulsive in MS patients. Also patient education by nurses regarding nutritional problems in during disease can be effective in early diagnosing and identifying such disorders.