Major stressful life events in adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis

Nete Munk Nielsen; Peter Bager; Jacob Simonsen; Anders Hviid; Egon Stenager; Henrik Brønnum-Hansen; Nils Koch-Henriksen; Morten Frisch

doi:10.1136/jnnp-2013-307181

Major stressful life events in adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis

Nete Munk Nielsen, Peter Bager, Jacob Simonsen, Anders Hviid, Egon Stenager, Henrik Brønnum-Hansen, Nils Koch-Henriksen, Morten Frisch

Section of Social Medicine

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: It is unclear whether psychological stress is associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied the association between major stressful life events and MS in a nationwide cohort study using death of a child or a spouse or marital dissolution as indicators of severe stress. Methods: We created two study cohorts based on all Danish men and women born 1950-1992. One cohort consisted of all persons who became parents between 1968 and 2010, and another cohort consisted of all persons who married between 1968 and 2010. Members of both cohorts were followed for MS between 1982 and 2010 using data from the National Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Associations between major stressful life events and risk of MS were evaluated by means of MS incidence rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) obtained in Poisson regression analyses. Results: During approximately 30 million person-years of follow-up, bereaved parents experienced no unusual risk of MS compared with parents who did not lose a child (RR=1.12 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.38)). Likewise, neither divorced (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.06)) nor widowed (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.32) persons were at any unusual risk of MS compared with married persons of the same sex. Conclusions: Our national cohort study provides little evidence for a causal association between major stressful life events (as exemplified by divorce or the loss of a child or a spouse) and subsequent MS risk.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
Volume	85
Pages (from-to)	1103-1108
Number of pages	6
ISSN	0022-3050
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2013-307181
Publication status	Published - 7 Mar 2014

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title = "Major stressful life events in adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis",

abstract = "Objective: It is unclear whether psychological stress is associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied the association between major stressful life events and MS in a nationwide cohort study using death of a child or a spouse or marital dissolution as indicators of severe stress. Methods: We created two study cohorts based on all Danish men and women born 1950-1992. One cohort consisted of all persons who became parents between 1968 and 2010, and another cohort consisted of all persons who married between 1968 and 2010. Members of both cohorts were followed for MS between 1982 and 2010 using data from the National Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Associations between major stressful life events and risk of MS were evaluated by means of MS incidence rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) obtained in Poisson regression analyses. Results: During approximately 30 million person-years of follow-up, bereaved parents experienced no unusual risk of MS compared with parents who did not lose a child (RR=1.12 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.38)). Likewise, neither divorced (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.06)) nor widowed (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.32) persons were at any unusual risk of MS compared with married persons of the same sex. Conclusions: Our national cohort study provides little evidence for a causal association between major stressful life events (as exemplified by divorce or the loss of a child or a spouse) and subsequent MS risk.",

author = "Nielsen, {Nete Munk} and Peter Bager and Jacob Simonsen and Anders Hviid and Egon Stenager and Henrik Br{\o}nnum-Hansen and Nils Koch-Henriksen and Morten Frisch",

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doi = "10.1136/jnnp-2013-307181",

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T1 - Major stressful life events in adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis

AU - Nielsen, Nete Munk

AU - Bager, Peter

AU - Simonsen, Jacob

AU - Hviid, Anders

AU - Stenager, Egon

AU - Brønnum-Hansen, Henrik

AU - Koch-Henriksen, Nils

AU - Frisch, Morten

PY - 2014/3/7

Y1 - 2014/3/7

N2 - Objective: It is unclear whether psychological stress is associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied the association between major stressful life events and MS in a nationwide cohort study using death of a child or a spouse or marital dissolution as indicators of severe stress. Methods: We created two study cohorts based on all Danish men and women born 1950-1992. One cohort consisted of all persons who became parents between 1968 and 2010, and another cohort consisted of all persons who married between 1968 and 2010. Members of both cohorts were followed for MS between 1982 and 2010 using data from the National Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Associations between major stressful life events and risk of MS were evaluated by means of MS incidence rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) obtained in Poisson regression analyses. Results: During approximately 30 million person-years of follow-up, bereaved parents experienced no unusual risk of MS compared with parents who did not lose a child (RR=1.12 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.38)). Likewise, neither divorced (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.06)) nor widowed (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.32) persons were at any unusual risk of MS compared with married persons of the same sex. Conclusions: Our national cohort study provides little evidence for a causal association between major stressful life events (as exemplified by divorce or the loss of a child or a spouse) and subsequent MS risk.

AB - Objective: It is unclear whether psychological stress is associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). We studied the association between major stressful life events and MS in a nationwide cohort study using death of a child or a spouse or marital dissolution as indicators of severe stress. Methods: We created two study cohorts based on all Danish men and women born 1950-1992. One cohort consisted of all persons who became parents between 1968 and 2010, and another cohort consisted of all persons who married between 1968 and 2010. Members of both cohorts were followed for MS between 1982 and 2010 using data from the National Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Associations between major stressful life events and risk of MS were evaluated by means of MS incidence rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) obtained in Poisson regression analyses. Results: During approximately 30 million person-years of follow-up, bereaved parents experienced no unusual risk of MS compared with parents who did not lose a child (RR=1.12 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.38)). Likewise, neither divorced (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.06)) nor widowed (RR=0.98 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.32) persons were at any unusual risk of MS compared with married persons of the same sex. Conclusions: Our national cohort study provides little evidence for a causal association between major stressful life events (as exemplified by divorce or the loss of a child or a spouse) and subsequent MS risk.

U2 - 10.1136/jnnp-2013-307181

DO - 10.1136/jnnp-2013-307181

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24610940

SN - 0022-3050

VL - 85

SP - 1103

EP - 1108

JO - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

JF - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

ER -

Major stressful life events in adulthood and risk of multiple sclerosis

Abstract

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