Psychiatric morbidity in patients with clinically isolated lesions of the type seen in multiple sclerosis: a clinical and MRI study.

This study reports the psychiatric morbidity in 76 patients with clinically isolated lesions of the type seen in multiple sclerosis (optic neuritis, brain stem and cord lesions). The presence or absence of brain pathology was investigated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A group of 33 patients suffering from rheumatic and neurological conditions not known to involve the brain was used for comparison. Normative MRI data were obtained from a group of 40 normal volunteers. Over half of the patients with the clinical presentation of single lesions had MRI abnormalities in the brain, but past and present psychiatric morbidity were similar in patients and controls and no significant associations were found between the presence of MRI abnormalities and psychiatric morbidity. The degree of social stress experienced by the patients with clinically isolated lesions appeared to be highly relevant in the causation of psychiatric symptoms.