Emotional state of patients with relapsing-remitting MS treated with interferon beta-1b

Background: Depression has been cited as a possible side effect of interfer on beta-1b (IFN beta-1b) therapy in patients with MS. This association rema ins unproven because of a lack of longitudinal studies. Objective: To deter mine the changes in emotional state in relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients during the first 2 years of treatment with IFN beta-1b. Methods: Emotional state was evaluated in a sample of 90 patients at the onset of IFN beta-1b treatment during an inclusion period of 2.5 years. Seventy-five patients w ere evaluated at their 12th month of treatment and 56 patients at their 24t h month. We assessed their emotional state with the following psychological tests: Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and St ate-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results: We found significant improvement in e motional state after the first and second years of treatment. Conclusions: Our findings show that IFN beta-1b does not increase depression of anxiety in RR MS patients during the first and second years of IFN beta-1b treatmen t. In fact, slight but significant improvement in depression and anxiety sy mptoms was observed during this period.