Public release date: 11-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Hilary Hurd Anyaso h-anyaso@northwestern.edu 847-491-4887 Northwestern University CHICAGO --- A weekly stress management program for patients with multiple sclerosis (M.S.) prevented the development of new brain lesions, a marker of the disease's activity in the brain, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. Brain lesions in M.S. often precede flare-ups of symptoms such as loss of vision or use of limbs or pain. "This is the first time counseling or psychotherapy has been shown to affect the development of new brain lesions," said David Mohr, principal investigator of the study and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "In M.S., the prevention of new brain lesions is an important marker used to judge how effective medications are." "The new finding is an important step and the strongest evidence we have to date that stress is involved in M.S.," Mohr added. The results indicate that stress management therapy may be a useful adjunct treatment with drug therapy for M.S., but a larger clinical trial is needed to confirm this, Mohr said. The study is published in the July 11, 2012 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of … Continue reading →

Public release date: 11-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Rachel Seroka rseroka@aan.com 612-928-6021 American Academy of Neurology MINNEAPOLIS A new study shows that taking part in a stress management program may help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) prevent new disease activity. The study is published in the July 11, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 121 people with MS. Half received the stress management program, meeting with a therapist for 16 individual 50-minute sessions over five to six months. They learned about problem-solving skills, relaxation, increasing positive activities, and enhancing their social support. They could also choose optional sessions on topics such as fatigue management, anxiety reduction, pain management and insomnia treatment. After the treatment ended, the participants were followed for another five to six months. The remaining participants were put on a waiting list as a control group. After 10 months, they attended a five-hour workshop on stress management. A total of 77 percent of those receiving stress management training were free of new lesions, or brain damage that indicates disease activity, during the treatment period, compared to 55 percent of those in the control group. … Continue reading →

Multiple Sclerosis Patients Had Fewer New Brain Lesions During Treatment July 11, 2012 -- Teaching MS patients how to deal with stress can improve their quality of life -- and may also prevent or slow down formation of new brain lesions, according to a new study. Patients with multiple sclerosis who attended stress management therapy sessions for six months had fewer new brain lesions from disease flare-ups and slower disease progression during their treatment, Northwestern University researcher David C. Mohr, PhD, and colleagues found. The findings, published in the July 11 issue of the journal Neurology, add to evidence that stress management can slow MS disease activity. "People who got the stress management training had significant reductions in the incidence of new brain lesions while enrolled in the weekly sessions," Mohr tells WebMD. But the improvement disappeared when the weekly sessions ended, suggesting that more sustained therapy may be needed, he says. Mohr says stress management therapy may be a useful addition to MS drugs. He has spent more than a decade researching the impact of depression and stress on MS progression. The new study included 121 MS patients randomly assigned either to a stress management treatment group or to … Continue reading →