Psychological morbidity in ALS: the importance of psychological assessment beyond depression alone.

The assessment of psychological morbidity in patients with ALS has centered around depression, hopelessness, and anxiety. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) offers an opportunity to explore psychological morbidity more broadly. We administered this instrument to 111 patients with ALS as part of a larger study of quality of life.

The SEIQoL-DW for assessing quality of life in ALS: strengths and limitations.

The Schedule for the Evaluation of the Individual Quality of Life-Direct Weighting (SEIQoL-DW) has been used to measure quality of life (QoL) in small cohorts of individuals with ALS, but its suitability for assessing aggregate QoL for between-group comparisons is uncertain. We undertook a prospective study in which 120 patients with ALS completed two measures of QoL, the SEIQoL-DW and the McGill Quality of Life Single-Item Scale (MQoL-SIS). There was a weak correlation between the SEIQoL-DW index score and the MQoL-SIS.

Factors supporting quality of life over time for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: the role of positive self-perception and religiosity.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neuromuscular disease with no known cure. Maintaining quality of life (QOL) as the disease progresses is an important treatment goal.

Purpose: the purpose of this study is to identify factors that support QOL as ALS progresses.

Religiousness is related to quality of life in patients with ALS.

The authors studied quality of life (QOL) and religiousness in 49 patients with ALS over five consecutive visits spanning approximately 1 year. QOL was not significantly correlated with religiousness at entry. Over time, a significant relationship developed between QOL and total, public, and private religiousness.