Newswise — Multiple sclerosis (MS) can cause significant physical impairment, including fatigue, pain, muscle spasms, tremors and dizziness. For many with MS, the disease wreaks havoc with emotional well-being, too, and according to a new study, minorities might especially be at risk for developing depressive symptoms.
Of study participants with the neurological condition, 44.2 percent of Latinos and 45.8 percent of African-Americans reported at least mild depression, compared with 38.7 percent of whites with MS. However, more Latinos never received mental health care, compared to whites or African-Americans with MS, according to lead study author Robert Buchanan, Ph.D.
Buchan is a professor in the department of political science and public administration at Mississippi State University. For the study in the December 2010 issue of the journal Ethnicity & Disease, authors used data from a registry of 26,967 white, 715 Latino and 1,313 African- American MS patients.
“Depression is even more common in people with MS,” said Staley Brod, M.D., director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Group Clinic at the University of Texas-Houston. “In general it is a treatable problem and, in most cases, the neurologist that’s seeing the patient can deal with it effectively,” he said.
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