According to researchers, MS patients can learn to better cope with symptoms like anxiety, fatigue and depression that come with this condition.

Randomized trials proved that patients who took a two months course of “mindfulness” improved drastically their quality of life, when compared with people who had usual care for their MS, according to Paul Grossman, PhD, of the University of Basel Hospital in Switzerland, and colleagues.

As reported in the issue of Neurology on September 28, the benefits of the course remained at high levels over the following six months.

This intervention was based on the idea that  mindfulness (nonjudgmental awareness of moment-to-moment experience) has positive effects on the acceptance of health-related changes, accuracy of perception, appreciation of available life experience and realistic sense of control.

Grossman stated that "MS is an unpredictable disease," and that "people can go for months feeling great and then have an attack that may reduce their ability to work or take care of their family."

According to him, mindfulness training can offer patients a more realistic sense of control and also a "greater appreciation of positive experiences that continue be part of life."

His idea was tested by him and his colleagues on 150 patients with RRMS or SPMS, who were randomly assigned to either usual care or mindfulness training.

The study focused on depression, quality of life and fatigue, as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Depression Scale,  the Modified Fatigue Impairment Scale, the Hamburg Quality of Life Questionnaire in Multiple Sclerosis and the Profile of Health-Related Quality of Life in Chronic Disorders. Anxiety was measured using the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory. Measurement were done at the start of the trial, at the end of the treatment and after six months.

According to this study, improvement on all outcomes was found after 8 weeks.  After 6 months, patients who had mindfulness training remained significantly improved.

These results suggest that mindfulness training is beneficial to MS patients, as it helps them to cope better with all the nonphysical aspects of MS.