Amanda Morris
Pronouns: She/her
Research Mentor(s): Anna Kratz
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation / Medicine
Program: UROP
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Authors: Duygu Kuzu
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system which occurs when the immune system attacks and destroys the myelin sheath that coats and protects nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. The psychosocial difficulties associated with MS have an effect on the function, treatment compliance, and interpersonal relationships in patients with MS. People with MS tend to use specific coping strategies to control their symptoms and we know that specific personality traits affect their adjustment to the condition. There is little known about the association between MS and the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM)–extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. However, it is important to understand how a person’s personality is related to their symptoms in order to further understand the impact of the disease on quality of life. This study recruits participants through the University of Michigan health system and collects data on patients with MS through an online survey. The study inclusion criteria consists of a self-reported MS diagnosis and requires participants to be at least 18 years of age. The data collected from the online survey will be entered into SPSS v26.0 software, and a correlation analysis will be performed to understand the relationship between personality and mood (pain and fatigue) and somatic (depression and anxiety) symptoms of MS. The study is ongoing therefore there have not been any finite conclusions. We expect to find that high levels of neuroticism and low levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness would be related to increased mood and somatic symptoms. Ultimately, early characterization of certain personality traits can be useful in preventing, minimizing, and managing pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety symptoms of MS. This can be further used to understand patients’ adherence to treatment and management of their symptoms.
