Abstract

SOUSA, Cláudia  and  PEREIRA, M. Graça. Psychologycal morbidity and ilness representation in patients with multiple sclerosis: Validation study of the “Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale ” (HADS). Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2008, vol.9, n.2, pp.283-298. ISSN 1645-0086.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease that may create incapacity often associated with anxiety and depression due to the unpredictable characteristics regarding its evolution. The goal of the present study was the study of psychometric characteristics, in patients with MS, of the psychometric characteristics of HADS (Zigmund & Snaith, 1983) and assess how psychological morbidity is related to illness representations. The sample for this study included 100 ambulatory patients with MS diagnosis. The instruments included were: Socio-demographic Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale” (HADS) (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), “Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised” (IPQ-R), (Weinman & Petrie, 1997). Results showed that Hads-.total has a good consistency (.87) and the same holds true for its subscales HADS-A (0,81) HADS-D (0,78) and the factorial analysis showed two factors just like the original version (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). In terms of morbidity, patients with more depression and anxiety showed a more negative and cyclic perception of disease consequences, a poor understanding of the disease and also more distress regarding the illness. Implications of results in terms of intervention are discussed.

Keywords : HADS; Illness representation; Morbidity; Multiple Sclerosis.

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