The Effectiveness of the Acceptance of Multiple Sclerosis after Diagnosis and Stress Control Management in Reducing the Symptoms and Relapse Prevention

Background: Chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), in addition to physical problems, lead to many psychosomatic disorders in patients. After MS diagnosis, many patients spend some time in an uncertain state and experience symptoms often invisible to those around them. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of accepting the disease after diagnosis and stress control management in the reduction of symptoms associated with MS and relapse prevention.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study was carried out using a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all MS patients in Mashhad. 24 patients were selected as the sample and were randomly assigned to two groups of control and experimental based on entry / exit criteria—ability to track the patients' condition and contact their families for 6 months, major complaints of obvious symptoms, survey of the type of medications used, lack of lateral psychiatric problems, duration of illness (at least 6 months), and lack of progression of illness. According to the research objectives, all of the patients undertook a clinical interview and a test to measure their motor, speech and vision abilities. The data were collected using an evaluation form for the acceptance of the disease after diagnosis, a questionnaire for perceived stress scale by Cohen et al., an evaluation form for symptoms associated with MS, a monthly assessment form of drug use and a monthly assessment form for prevention of relapse. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean and variance), Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S) and Levene test were used. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 17. In this research, the statistical significant level was considered to be less than 0.05.
Results: Among the patients with MS in Mashhad, 24 people (79% female and 21% male) were studied as a statistical sample. The main hypothesis of the research—acceptance of the disease after diagnosis and stress control management is effective in reducing symptoms associated with MS and relapse prevention—was confirmed based on the results of the Levene test, with respect to homogeneity of variance (P = 0.284, F = 0.669) and the significant level (P < 0.005, F = 15.71). This test showed a significant statistical relationship between the variables studied (P = 0.0001). The first sub-hypothesis of the research—acceptance of the disease after diagnosis and stress control management is effective in reducing symptoms associated with MS—was confirmed based on the results of the Levene test, with respect to homogeneity of variance (P = 0.109, F = 2.744) and the significant level (P < 0.05, F = 18.53). This test showed a significant statistical relationship between the examined variables (P = 0.0001). The second sub-hypothesis of the study—acceptance of the disease after diagnosis and stress control management is effective in relapse prevention—was confirmed based on the results of the Levene test, with respect to homogeneity of variance (P = 0.257, F = 1.134) and the significant level (P < 0.05, F = 13.51). The test results showed a significant statistical relationship between the studied variables (P = 0.001).
Conclusions: Raising more awareness of MS and its therapeutic process can reduce severe reactions of patients, patients’ families and the society against the disease, such patients and fear of catching the disease by removing the existing biases in the field of the disease and issues related to it.