Depression Worsens Prognosis in ALS Patients

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease, and one would expect many individuals with ALS to be depressed. To learn more, researchers used 8 years of observational data on 1067 consecutive ALS patients (mean age, 61) with a median survival of 2.56 years from onset of motor symptoms. Data on depression was obtained from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in 964 patients.

Overall, PHQ-9 scores were low, indicating mild or no depression. Survival was significantly shorter in patients with initial moderate depression (approximately one third of the cohort) than in initially nondepressed participants (763 vs. 1102 days). Major depressive disorder (determined from PHQ-9 responses) wa…