The Relationship Between Social Cognition Impairments and Fatigue, Depression and Anxiety in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Emerging research indicates that in addition to physical and cognitive deficits, individuals with MS may also have impairments in social cognition including the recognition and interpretation of the emotions of others. Facial Affect Recognition and Theory of Mind (ToM) are two abilities which are reported to be impaired in MS. However, there is little research into how these deficits relate to other outcome measures.  

Objectives: Thus, the current study investigated whether deficits in social cognition would be associated with psychosocial fatigue, depression and anxiety. 

Methods: Twenty-eight individuals with MS participated in the study and were given questionnaires to assess psychosocial fatigue (Modified Fatigue Impact Scale-psychosocial subscale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), as well as tasks of facial affect recognition and ToM (Reading the Mind in the Eyes; Strange Stories). Pearson correlations were performed to examine the relationship between the variables. 

Results: The results indicated that both facial affect recognition and ToM deficits were significantly associated with higher rates of psychosocial fatigue, depression and anxiety. 

Conclusions: These findings help us better understand how social cognition deficits affect the individual with MS in terms of emotional well-being.