Guty Edyta, Kozimala Magdalena, Boratyn Beata, Mrozowicz Aneta, Nowak Przemysław, Balicka-Adamik Luiza. Multiple sclerosis: psychological problems (emotional tension, stress, depressive disorders) and accompanying factors. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(4):265-275. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2635854 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/6810 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2019; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 28.03.2019. Revised: 30.03.2019. Accepted: 11.04.2019. Multiple sclerosis: psychological problems (emotional tension, stress, depressive disorders) and accompanying factors Edyta Guty1, Magdalena Kozimala1, Beata Boratyn1, Aneta Mrozowicz1, Przemysław Nowak2, Luiza-Balicka-Adamik3 1 State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jarosław 2 Medical Care Centre in Jarosław 3 Regional Saint Padre Pio’s Hospital in Przemyśl Abstract Emotional tension, stress and depressive disorders (as a whole referred to as psychological disorders) accompany multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this paper has been to determine the frequency of their occurrence and their relation to other disorders common for MS. A group of 67 patients of a neurological clinic in Jarosław and neurological ward in Przemyśl (situated in south-east Poland) were provided with a tailor-made questionnaire. The patients who declared having psychological problems belonged to a group of older adults, who suffered from MS longer and who demonstrated more mobility impairment (higher EDSS score). It was found that the patients experienced also a higher frequency of occurrence of the following: pain (48.8% vs 4.0%), communication difficulties (34.1% vs 0.0%), fatigue syndrome (90.5% vs 13%), sexual dysfunctions (92.7% vs 20.0%). Emotional tension, stress or depressive disorders were found the most common among patients diagnosed with secondary progressive MS (100.0%), and the least common in patients with progressive-relapsing MS (46.9%). Upon combining the respondents’ age, duration of the disease as well as EDSS scores (0.57-0.73), the most significant factor influencing the occurrence of psychological disorders, the authors suggest, was the intensification of mobility impairment. Keywords: multiple sclerosis; emotional tension; stress; depressive disorders