Comparison of Life Stressors before Diagnosis in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and Healthy Individuals: A Case-Control Study

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system that occurs when a genetically predisposed person is exposed to possible environmental factors. Stressful life events have been mentioned as effective factors in the incidence of MS, but the nature of this relationship remains to be adequately understood. This study aimed to determine the amount of exposure to stress before the onset of the disease. Methods: This case-control study was performed on 34 recently diagnosed MS patients in Yazd, Iran, from 2019 to 2020. Their demographic information and scores on the Paykel questionnaire were collected, and the data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 26. Results: In the study population, the number of women with MS was 26% higher than that of men. The case group’s mean age of developing the disease was 31.70±8.03. In this study, no significant relationship was found between marital status and the incidence of MS (P=0.15). Those with education lower than a high school diploma obtained a higher stress score. In terms of life stressors in general (P=0.001), psychosocial stressors (P=0.011), grief-disappointment (P=0.013), and individual-family problems (P=0.0001), there were significant differences between the cases and the controls. Conclusion: This study showed that stressful life events are more common in MS patients than healthy individuals. In addition to stress, other factors such as anxiety, coping mechanisms, attitudinal aspects (optimism and pessimism), and the amount of social support should be taken into consideration when dealing with MS.