Empirical support for psychological profiles observed in multiple sclerosis
E. A. Boyle, C. M. Clark, H. Klonoff, D. W. Paty and J. Oger
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Though increasing attention is being paid to psychological aspects of
multiple sclerosis, much research continues to examine patients as
differing in quantity rather than quality of psychological abnormality or
response. Cluster analysis was used to identify distinctive psychological
profiles in a large sample of patients with multiple sclerosis. It employed
three measures, carefully chosen to capture the main responses historically
observed in multiple sclerosis. These measures were (1) the patient's
physical disability-impairment, assessed by a neurologist; (2) physical
disability-impairment as perceived and reported by the patient; and (3)
self-reported psychological well-being (or distress) independent of
physical signs and symptoms. The optimal solution from the cluster analysis
separated the 99 patients into 10 clusters, which were collapsed into four
profiles, consistent with the labels "depression," "denial," "exaggerated
somatic," and "severity-related." These data give strong empirical support
to the existence of discrete and distinctive coping styles in multiple
sclerosis.
