Depression and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Physical and Mental Aspects of Quality of Life in Patients With Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 1A

Introduction

Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1A (CMT1A) comprises ~50% of all CMT cases. CMT1A is a slowly progressive motor and sensory neuropathy that leads to significant disability. We aimed to investigate the quality of life (QoL) in Serbian patients with CMT1A and to assess sociodemographic and clinical features associated with their QoL.

Material and Methods

Forty-five genetically confirmed patients with CMT1A were included −60% women [age 50.4 ± 12.6 years, disease duration 22 (12.5–31.5) years]. SF-36, Medical Research Council (MRC) Sum Score, CMT Examination Score (CMTES), Overall Neuropathy Limitation Scale (ONLS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Krupp's Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were used in the study.

Results

Regarding SF-36, Mental Health and Social Functioning were the scales with the best achievements, whereas Role Physical was the worst domain. Worse QoL in patients with CMT1A was associated with elder age (rho = −0.34, p < 0.05), longer disease duration (rho = −0.31, p < 0.05), more pronounced muscle weakness measured by MRC-SS (rho = 0.43, p < 0.01), presence of tremor (p < 0.05), worse CMTES (rho = −0.68, p < 0.01), more severe disability in upper (rho = −0.70, p < 0.01) and lower limbs (rho = −0.61, p < 0.01) measured by ONLS scores, use of walking aids (p < 0.01), and with depression (p < 0.01) and fatigue (p < 0.01). Worse scores on CMTES (beta = −0.43, p < 0.01), BDI (beta = −0.39, p < 0.01), and FSS (beta = −0.36, p < 0.01) were significant independent predictors of worse QoL in patients with CMT1A (adjusted R² = 0.77, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Besides impairment made directly by CMT1A itself, QoL in these patients was also strongly affected by the presence of depression and fatigue. Since CMT1A is still not a curable disease, it is of interest to identify factors associated with QoL that are amenable to treatment.

Quality of life in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A

We assessed the functional impairment in Charcot-Marie-Tooth resulting from 17p11.2-p12 duplication (CMT1A) patients using the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), which is a quality of life questionnaire. Twenty-five patients of both genders aged ≥10 years with a positive molecular diagnosis of CMT1A were selected. Age- and gender-matched Control Group (without family history of neuropathy), and the sociodemographic and professional conditions similar to the patients' group were selected to compare the SF-36 results between them. The results showed that the majority quality of life impairments in CMT1A patients occurred in the social and emotional domains. Functional capacity also tended to be significantly affected; other indicators of physical impairment were preserved. In conclusion, social and emotional aspects are mostly neglected in the assistance provided to CMT1A Brazilian patients, and they should be better understood in order to offer global health assistance with adequate quality of life as a result.