Emotions and multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Notwithstanding the increased interest in the investigation of psychiatric disturbances in multiple sclerosis' (MS) patients and the connection between these disturbances and emotions, the expected growing of research on the relationship between emotional behaviour and MS has not been observed. In the very recent years, some study appeared on the topic: these studies have both applied standardized scales for the evaluation of clinical aspects of a single emotion (e.g., anger) and techniques of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in order to evaluate the anatomical and functional correlates of the processing of stimuli with variable emotional content. Even if the results have to be considered preliminary, a certain convergence exist on the presence of dysfunctions of the appraisal of or the response to emotions in MS patients. The relevance of a deeper investigation of the emotional processing in neurological pathologies like MS and the consequences of eventual dysfunctions are briefly outlined in the chapter.