The aim of research was to draw attention to the presence of depression in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). A randomly created set of 42 patients with MS (11 males and 31 females) with the average EDSS of 3.2 in men and 2.77 in women underwent psychiatric examinations. The patients’ states were evaluated using psychiatric assessing scales: Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), Montgomery-Asperg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), a psychosomatic questionnaire SCL-90 and HAD (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were completed, cognitive abilities were assessed by means of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R), neurological deficit with a scale of disability level in MS – Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Depression was proved in 33 % of patients, anxiety in 29 %, when generally men’s responses to a chronic disease were more depressive, while anxiety prevailed in women. The highest value in the scale of depression in men and anxiety in women was recorded by our examinations in primarily progressive form at the value of 4.5 of EDSS. After the first attack (a clinically isolated syndrome), anxiety is experienced with high intensity in both sexes. A slight cognitive deficit was recorded in 5 out of 12 subjects. If compared with literature giving 40–45 % of depressive patients, the lower percentage of those in our set is probably caused by a less numerous set and selection of patients with the lower EDSS due to the availability of psychiatric investigations. Nevertheless, this percentage is quite high to think about coexistence of depression in MS and to treat it adequately and in time.

        Key words: depression, etiopathogenesis of depression, cerebrospinal multiple sclerosis