Self-reported Depressive Symptoms in Myasthenia Gravis

It is well known that patients with a chronic medical illness experience major depression at a higher rate than the general population. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of depression among patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) who were referred to a Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic. Forty-five patients with a diagnosis of MG were evaluated with a self-administered survey regarding various typical somatic and psychologic symptoms of depression (the Beck Depression Inventory [BDI]) and then scored according to the BDI guidelines. Thirty-three percent of these patients generated scores suggestive of depression (24% were categorized as mildly depressed, 7% as moderately depressed, and 2% as severely depressed). These results suggest that patients with MG patients experience depression at a higher rate than the general population and at a similar rate as patients with other chronic illnesses.