Abstract
This case report describes associations between childhood adversity, adult stress
exposure, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) to highlight the intersection between mental
health and neurological illness in persons with MS (PwMS). We focus on a high-adversity,
high-resource patient who self-referred to mental health services for depression and
suicidal ideation, without ever being screened for past or current stress exposure.
MS and common comorbid symptoms (e.g., fatigue, depression, suicidality) may be affected
by adversity and compounded by pandemic-related stressors, including socio-political
and economic sequelae. This case illustrates the potential benefit of screening for
lifetime stressors as a mechanism to improve case conceptualizations, enable referrals
to mental health specialists to promote coping and resiliency, reduce future MS morbidity,
and illuminate stress as an important research focus that deserves further exploration
in PwMS.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 11, 2021
Accepted:
July 8,
2021
Received in revised form:
June 26,
2021
Received:
January 11,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
