The relationship of clinical indicators of disease and personality structure with fatigue in people with multiple sclerosis

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati odnos kliničkih indikatora bolesti i strukture ličnosti s umorom kod osoba koje boluju od multiple skleroze. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzroku od 201 osobe s dijagnozom multiple skleroze. Ispitani su klinički indikatori bolesti (trajanje, oblik bolesti i EDSS mjera neurološkog oštećenja), temperament i karakter putem Revidiranog inventara temperamenta i karaktera (Cloninger, 1999), a zastupljenost umora primjenom Modificirane skale utjecaja umora (Fisk i sur., 1994). Provedena je hijerarhijska regresijska analiza čiji su rezultati pokazali kako od svih kliničkih indikatora bolesti samo EDSS doprinosi objašnjenju ukupne varijance kriterija. Osim te varijable, temperament, ali i karakter, doprinose osjećaju umora. Što se tiče temperamenta, osobe sklonije izbjegavanju štete i traženju novosti izvještavaju o većem umoru, a kada je riječ o karakteru pokazuje se da pojedinci s nižom samousmjerenosti izvještavaju o većem umoru. Efekti interakcije pojedinih dimenzija temperamenta i karaktera nisu utvrđeni. Rasprava nudi objašnjenja navedenih rezultata.The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between clinical indicators and personality structure among patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. A sample was composed of 201 adults diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Following parametars were investigated: clinical indicators of disease (duration, form of disease and EDSS measure of neurological impariment), temperament and character measured by Revised temperament and character inventory (Cloninger, 1999), and the presence of fatigue investigated through Modified fatigue impact scale (Fisk et al., 1994). Results were analized via hierarchical regression analysis which have shown that out of all clinical indicators EDSS only contributed to the explanation of total criterion variance. In addition, temperament and character contribute to a sense of fatigue also. As for temperament, people prone to harm avoidance and novelty seeking report a higer fatigue, and when it comes to character, individuals withlower self – directedness report a higher fatigue. The effects of interaction between temperament and character dimensions on criterion variable were not significant. The discussion offers explanation of these results