0000000000462638
AUTHOR
S. Stecchi
Multiple sclerosis in twins from continental Italy and Sardinia: a nationwide study.
Knowledge about the balance between heritable and nonheritable risk in multiple sclerosis (MS) is based on twin studies in high-prevalence areas. In a study that avoided ascertainment limitations and directly compared continental Italy (medium-prevalence) and Sardinia (high-prevalence), we ascertained 216 pairs from 34,549 patients. This gives a twinning rate of 0.62% among MS patients, significantly less than that of the general population. In continental Italy, probandwise concordance was 14.5% (95% confidence interval, 5.1-23.8) for monozygotic and 4.0% (95% confidence interval, 0.8-7.1) for dizygotic twins. Results in Sardinia resemble those in northern populations but in limited number…
A 12-month prospective, observational study evaluating the impact of disease-modifying treatment on emotional burden in recently-diagnosed multiple sclerosis patients: The POSIDONIA study.
Abstract Introduction Depression and anxiety are common among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and are frequently present at the time of MS diagnosis. Methods POSIDONIA was a 12-month, observational, prospective study conducted in Italy to evaluate the impact of disease-modifying treatment (DMT) on emotional burden in patients with recently-diagnosed MS. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), specifically HADS anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D) subscale scores, the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) and the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) were used to measure patient-reported outcomes. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), HDRS-17, was used as a measure…