Mandatory Rest Period

A topic that for myself, I'm particularily scared of. My personal life in the past several years has been the highest level of stress I've ever experienced and I often wonder what impact its all had on me. I have just finished moving and now I can finally peacefully rest. But will I be hit with an attack? What will it be? This report below certainly shows that stress plays a greater role in relapse. Will my friendly Fingolimod trial drug in my body help me out here? I've been relapse free now for 13 months. My average attack rate over the last 4 years has been one a year. Here's hoping for many more months without a relapse!

"PURPOSE: The aims of this study were first, to examine the general relation between stressful life events (SLEs) and clinical relapses in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and second, to investigate the relations of the specific stressor attributes of duration, type, and severity on MS exacerbations.

METHODS: Twenty six ambulating women with relapsing-remitting MS were followed-up for a mean of 56.3weeks. Patients documented SLEs weekly in self report diaries which were then collected at regular pre-scheduled clinic visits every 4weeks. SLEs were classified as short-term if they had subjectively no lasting effect and long-term if they had a subjectively felt psychological impact that lasted at least 10-14days after the event. The severity of SLEs was determined using the Recent Life Change Questionnaire.

RESULTS: Experiencing three or more SLEs, during a 4-week period, was associated with a 5-fold increase of MS relapse rate (95% CI 1.7-16.4, p=0.003). The presence of at least one long-term SLE was associated with three times (95% CI 1.01-9.13, p<0.05) the rate of MS exacerbation during the following 4weeks. There was no significant association between the severity (95% CI 0.99-1.01, p>0.05) or the type (chi(2)=7.29, df=5, p>0.05) of stressor and the risk for relapse.

CONCLUSION: Ambulatory women with relapsing-remitting MS who experience cumulative SLEs may be at a greater risk for relapse. Duration is the only stress attribute that seems to increase the risk for relapsing in contrast to stress type and stress severity that were not found to interact with MS exacerbation

- posted by Anonymous @ 4:01 PM - Link @ 4:01 PM - Link to this post - Comments (0)

			Hi, I’m Kim! This site provides a little insight to my journey of being diagnosised with Remitting Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis on October 26th 2004. I review books and documentaries, post MS-related news, and share my photos. Subscribe (RSS) My bloglines Archives Current November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 September 2010 November 2011

	Wednesday, September 24, 2008 *The impact of stressful life events on risk of relapse in women with MS: A prospective study* A topic that for myself, I'm particularily scared of. My personal life in the past several years has been the highest level of stress I've ever experienced and I often wonder what impact its all had on me. I have just finished moving and now I can finally peacefully rest. But will I be hit with an attack? What will it be? This report below certainly shows that stress plays a greater role in relapse. Will my friendly Fingolimod trial drug in my body help me out here? I've been relapse free now for 13 months. My average attack rate over the last 4 years has been one a year. Here's hoping for many more months without a relapse! "PURPOSE: The aims of this study were first, to examine the general relation between stressful life events (SLEs) and clinical relapses in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and second, to investigate the relations of the specific stressor attributes of duration, type, and severity on MS exacerbations. METHODS: Twenty six ambulating women with relapsing-remitting MS were followed-up for a mean of 56.3weeks. Patients documented SLEs weekly in self report diaries which were then collected at regular pre-scheduled clinic visits every 4weeks. SLEs were classified as short-term if they had subjectively no lasting effect and long-term if they had a subjectively felt psychological impact that lasted at least 10-14days after the event. The severity of SLEs was determined using the Recent Life Change Questionnaire. RESULTS: Experiencing three or more SLEs, during a 4-week period, was associated with a 5-fold increase of MS relapse rate (95% CI 1.7-16.4, p=0.003). The presence of at least one long-term SLE was associated with three times (95% CI 1.01-9.13, p<0.05) the rate of MS exacerbation during the following 4weeks. There was no significant association between the severity (95% CI 0.99-1.01, p>0.05) or the type (chi(2)=7.29, df=5, p>0.05) of stressor and the risk for relapse. CONCLUSION: Ambulatory women with relapsing-remitting MS who experience cumulative SLEs may be at a greater risk for relapse. Duration is the only stress attribute that seems to increase the risk for relapsing in contrast to stress type and stress severity that were not found to interact with MS exacerbation - posted by Anonymous @ 4:01 PM - Link @ 4:01 PM - Link to this post - Comments (0)