How Do Pain, Fatigue, Depressive, and Cognitive Symptoms Relate to Well-Being and Social and Physical Functioning in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis?
Anna L Kratz, Tiffany J Braley, Emily Foxen-Craft and 3 others
PMID 28729170WHAT IT FOUND
For people with MS, bad pain days were linked with worse social participation and lower-extremity functioning.
Depressed mood and fatigue days were linked with worse well-being. In the main models, perceived cognitive changes showed no same-day links.
Key findings
01On days when pain was higher than a person's usual level, same-day social participation was lower.
02On days when pain was higher than usual, lower-extremity functioning was worse; higher average pain was also linked with worse lower-extremity functioning.
03Days of higher fatigue or depressed mood were linked with lower same-day well-being.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Participants were mostly white, female, ambulatory with minimal assistance, and had low average symptom levels, so findings may not apply to more diverse or more severely affected people. The study measured only pain, fatigue, depressed mood, and perceived cognitive function over seven days, so other symptoms such as weakness and longer-term patterns were not examined. It was an observational daily-diary study, not a treatment trial, so it cannot show that reducing a symptom improves function. Cognitive function was rated by the participant as current thinking sharpness or slowness, not by a formal cognitive assessment. Some diary and momentary ratings were missing, though rates were low (87.1% diaries, 84.9% of possible momentary data points).
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is labeled as supported by NIH extramural funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating pain, fatigue, or mood will improve daily function. The study found same-day associations only, and it did not test a treatment.