• Giulia Menculini, Andrea Mancini, Lorenzo Gaetani, Laura Bellingacci, Alfonso Tortorella, Lucilla Parnetti, and Massimiliano Di Filippo.
• Section of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
• J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. 2023 May 1; 94 (5): 389395389-395.

AbstractPsychiatric symptoms frequently occur in multiple sclerosis (MS), presenting with a complex phenomenology that encompasses a large clinical spectrum from clear-cut psychiatric disorders up to isolated psychopathological manifestations. Despite their relevant impact on the overall disease burden, such clinical features are often misdiagnosed, receive suboptimal treatment and are not systematically evaluated in the quantification of disease activity. The development of psychiatric symptoms in MS underpins a complex pathogenesis involving both emotional reactions to a disabling disease and structural multifocal central nervous system damage. Here, we review MS psychopathological manifestations under a biological perspective, highlighting the pathogenic relevance of synaptic and neural network dysfunction. Evidence obtained from human and experimental disease models suggests that MS-related psychiatric phenomenology is part of a disconnection syndrome due to diffuse inflammatory and neurodegenerative brain damage.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

8 keywords...

hide…