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Fatigue and Depression in MS
Evaluating associations with cortical thickness
Fatigue and depression can be dissociated in larger MS-patient groups using questionnaires and cortical thickness measures, but the cortical thickness measures explain only a small portion of variance of these neuropsychiatric symptoms. This according to a study of 95 patients with MS and 15 healthy controls. Researchers found:
- 20% of patients had only fatigue or only depressive mood.
- Regression analysis explained 17.3% of the variance, with thickness of the right inferior parietal cortex, middle temporal lobe, and parahippocampus contributing significantly to the model.
- Patients with pure fatigue showed a specific decrease in cortical thickness in the inferior parietal lobe.
- Patients with both depressive mood and fatigue showed a specific decrease in cortical thickness in the right middle temporal pole.
- Additional ANOVAs revealed cortical thinning in the right middle cingulate cortex in patients with pure fatigue and in those with depression.
Citation: Hanken K, Eling P, Klein J, Klaene E, Hildebrandt H. Different cortical underpinnings for fatigue and depression in MS? [Published online ahead of print February 7, 2016]. Mult Scler Rel Dis. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2016.02.005.