Stress and Multiple Sclerosis are not linked : Study

As per a new study, stress in women does not exasperate MS.

A new study published in the May 31 issue of journal 'Neurology' has suggested that there is no link between stressful experience among women and the development of multiple sclerosis disease. The study was conducted by Trond Riise from the University of Bergen in Norway and colleagues.

In two different, multi year surveys, done on female nurses, researchers found that stress related to work and daily life, childhood physical and sexual trauma are not related to the chances of developing the disease.

Riise and his colleagues used these two separate studies – the Nurses Health Study and the Nurses Health Study ll – to explore the issue. The first study was done in 1976 had enrolled 121,700 women and the second study done in 1989 consisted of 116,671 women between the age group of 30 to 55 and 25 to 42 respectively.

After factors like age, ethnicity, latitude of birth, body mass index at age 18, and smoking were adjusted, the researchers found no connection between stress and MS onset.

Although a statistically insignificant relation was found between sexual abuse during childhood and MS onset, for example the hazard ratio of just 0.85 was found for multiple sclerosis associated with severe home stress.

Although researchers have ruled out that it’s a firm conclusion and has left it on future studies that will be more focused and have frequently measured stress assessment. Several limitation were acknowledged in the study like inability to define and measure stress exactly. Researchers also maintained that since their data only included women so it may apply only to women.

MS, an autoimmune disease, in which the body’s immune system attacks the sheaths covering the nerves in the brain and the spinal column, in many of the previous studies it was found that this disease is linked with stressful life events.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke.