Meca-Lallana, Jose EPrefasi, DanielPérez-Miralles, FranciscoForero, LucíaSepúlveda, MaríaCalles, CarmenMartínez-Ginés, María LGonzález-Suárez, InésBoyero, SabasRomero-Pinel, LucíaSempere, Ángel PMeca-Lallana, VirginiaQuerol, LuisCosta-Frossard, Luciennede Castro-Trapiello, HugoCanal, NeusMaurino, Jorge2023-02-092023-02-092021-04-121177-889Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10668/17612Perception of stigma was associated with low self-esteem, psychological problems, and decreased health-seeking behavior among patients with different neurological disorders. The purpose of this study was to assess stigmatization and its impact in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). A non-interventional study was conducted at thirteen neuroimmunology clinics in Spain. Patients with a diagnosis of NMOSD (2015 Wingerchuk criteria) were included. The 8-item Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (SSCI-8), the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), the 29-item Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29), the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen (BDI-FS), the MOS Pain Effects Scale (MOS-PES) and the Fatigue Impact Scale for Daily Use (D-FIS) were used to assess the perception of stigma, disability, quality of life, mood, pain, and fatigue, respectively. Associations between outcome measures were analyzed using Spearman's rank correlation. Seventy-one patients were studied (mean age: 47.4 years ± 14.9, 81.7% female, mean time since disease onset: 9.9 years ± 8.1). The median EDSS score was 3.0 (interquartile range 1.5, 4.5). Stigma prevalence was 61.4% (n=43). Thirty-one patients (43.6%) had depression. The SSCI-8 score showed a significant correlation with both physical (rho=0.576, p Stigma is a common phenomenon affecting over 6 out of 10 patients with NMOSD. Understanding stigma may be useful to develop educational strategies improving NMOSD knowledge.enAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/depressionneuromyelitis optica spectrum disorderpatient-reported outcomesquality of lifestigmaresearch article33880015open access10.2147/PPA.S305707PMC8052114https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=68384https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052114/pdf