The relationship between fatigue and temperament and character inventory among patients with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive, chronic, inflamatuar, and demyelinating disease of central nervous system. Fatigue is one of the most prevalent complaints among MS patients. The objective of present study is to examine the relationship between fatigue and temperament and character inventory among MS patients.This study was conducted at Fırat University Hospital Department of Neurology between August-December 2010. Totally 75 patients with MS and 75 healthy volunteer individuals as control group were included to study. Socio-demographic features of all cases were recorded a standardized form. The personal features of patients and controls were determined by using ``Temperament Character Inventory?? (TCI) developed by Cloninger. Fatigue individuals were detected via ``Fatigue Severity Scale??. Statistical analyses of data were done by SPSS 16.0 for Windows Version Programme.In the study, ``Harm Avoidance?? from parameters of TCI was found to be significantly high, and ``Social Acceptance?? was found to be significantly low, among MS patients. Namely, fatigue MS patients are more reluctant, passive, distrustful, easily fatigue, pessimistic, avoiding from harmful conditions, and intolerant individuals than non-fatigue MS patients and controls. MS patients have been found to be more fatigue than healthy individuals, although they have not entered to the fatigue classification according to Fatigue Severity Scale. ``Persistence?? and ``Purposefulness?? scores, as regardless of fatigue, were found to be significantly low among MS patients. Namely, fatigue MS patients are more indolent, inactive, hesitant, irregular, rarely working for high success, tend to easily renunciation, and purposeless individuals than healthy individuals. ?Self-Directed?, ?Resourcefulness?, and ?Anticipatory Worry? scores were found to be low among MS patients when compared with controls, although significant differences were not found between fatigue MS patients and fatigue controls, and between non-fatigue MS patients and non-fatigue controls. It was considered that these personal features were not related with fatigue.Finally, fatigue has been found to be significantly affecting the temperament and character features among MS patients.Keywords: Multiple sclerosis, fatigue, personality, temperament and character inventory.