Neurovegetative symptoms in multiple sclerosis: Relationship to depressed mood, fatigue, and physical disability

Some authors have suggested that when evaluating depression in multiple scl erosis (MS) patients, neurovegetative symptoms should be discounted and/or nor considered, given the ostensibly high overlap between symptoms of MS (e .g.,sleep disturbance, fatigue) and neurovegetative symptoms of depression. A further assertion is that inclusion of items assessing neurovegetative s ymptoms may artificially inflate overall depression scores and that mood sc ales may provide more accurate indices of depression in MS patients. The cu rrent study investigated the possibility that some neurovegetative symptoms may be specifically related to MS patients' depressed mood and are not sim ply indicators of physical disability and/or fatigue. Seventy-six clinicall y definite MS patients in the northwestern United States were administered two depression inventories and measures of physical disability and fatigue as part of a larger study. Results revealed that one neurovegetative sympto m-disinterest in sex-was uniquely associated with depressed mood, and other neurovegetative symptoms were associated with both depression and fatigue but not physical disability. The present findings suggest that certain neur ovegetative symptoms are differentially associated with depression, fatigue , and physical disability in MS. Routinely discounting all neurovegetative symptoms when assessing depression in MS patients may thus be unwarranted ( C) 2000 National Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.