State of Mental Health Care for Patients With MS: Dawn Edhe, PhD

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

“One of the biggest gaps we have is access to mental health care. We have evidence-based treatments that help address mental health conditions in people with MS, but we're not getting them to those patients.”

Mental health and cognitive impairment are both invisible symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and have started to become more common conversation topics during medical meetings. Although telemedicine has proven beneficial in granting more access to care for patients with MS, there are still some challenges with access to care services that focus on mental health. There are a lot of opportunities for providers to support their patients when they have difficulties accessing mental health care, including the National MS Society's new guidance.

Recently, in an interview with NeurologyLive^®, Dawn Edhe, PhD, discussed mental health care in this patient population based on this new guidance. She described the state of mental health care for patients with MS and the major gaps that still linger despite the renewed focus. Edhe, psychologist and professor in the department of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, also provided advice for the clinical community looking to implement this guidance into their clinical practice.