The prevalence and impacts of psychological disorders in Chinese Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and influential factors of depression, anxiety, suicidal tendency and sleep disorders in a group of Chinese amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients.

Methods: A total of 103 ALS patients were investigated using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Self- Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Nurses’ Global Assessment of Suicide Risk scale (NGASR) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). The risk factors related to psychological disorders in the patients were analyzed.

Results: The medians (range) of PHQ-9, SDS, SAS, PSQI of patients were 8 (1-27), 45 (24-95), 51.30% (25.43%-83.41%), 7 (1-27), respectively. There were 17 (16.50%), 27 (26.21%) and 12 (11.65%) of ALS patients were classified as moderate, high and extremely high suicide risk as showed by NGASR, respectively. Financial supports were negatively associated with PHQ-9 (p<0.001), SAS (p<0.001), SDS (p<0.001) and NGASR (p<0.001) of ALS patients. Less food intake was strongly associated to high levels of PHQ-9 (p=0.009), SAS (p=0.012), SDS (p<0.001) and NGASR (p=0.028) in ALS patients. Regular reading was significantly related to higher QOL (p=0.019) and lower NGASR (p=0.007) in ALS population.

Conclusion: Depression, anxiety and poor sleep quality were commonly reported by ALS patients, which may result in high risk of suicide. Decrease in food intake, low financial support, poor functional status and rapid progression were risk factors of psychological distress in ALS population. Psychological treatments were crucial for ALS population, which deserved more attention of clinicians.