Assessment of Depression in Multiple Sclerosis

Signs and symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) may overlap with those of depression, a common comorbidity. This study explored whether inclusion of somatic items on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) falsely elevated scores in a clinical sample of 557 adults with MS evaluated by the health psychology service within an MS center. Our sample's BDI-II responses were subjected to exploratory factor analysis, and the results were compared with those reported in the BDI-II manual. Analyses were then conducted to compare patients who identified fatigue as their worst MS symptom with those who did not and to compare those with high and low levels of fatigue and daytime sleepiness in terms of total BDI-II score, percentage contribution of specific somatic items (ie, tiredness or fatigue) to total BDI-II score, and the sum contribution of the somatic-affective factor to the BDI-II score. Respondents who reported fatigue as their worst MS symptom and those who did not had almost identical BDI-II scores. Among ...