ArticleCommunications medicine2024
Natural language processing analysis of the theories of people with multiple sclerosis about causes of their disease.
Article in Communications medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mixed-methods analysis on psychedelic-augmented meditation experiences from a randomized controlled mindfulness retreat.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Conversational AI should fill the white space in mental health care, not replace humans.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Review
- Machine learning in healthcare citizen science: A scoping review.International journal of medical informatics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile potential risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been extensively researched, it remains unclear how persons with MS theorize about their MS. Such theories may affect mental health and treatment adherence. Using natural language processing techniques, we investigated large-scale text data about theories that persons with MS have about the causes of their disease. We examined the topics into which their theories could be grouped and the prevalence of each theory topic.
methodsA total of 486 participants of the Swiss MS Registry longitudinal citizen science project provided text data on their theories about the etiology of MS. We used the transformer-based BERTopic Python library for topic modeling to identify underlying topics. We then conducted an in-depth characterization of the topics and assessed their prevalence.
resultsThe topic modeling analysis identifies 19 distinct topics that participants theorize as causal for their MS. The topics most frequently cited are Mental Distress (31.5%), Stress (Exhaustion, Work) (29.8%), Heredity/Familial Aggregation (27.4%), and Diet, Obesity (16.0%). The 19 theory topics can be grouped into four high-level categories: physical health (mentioned by 56.2% of all participants), mental health (mentioned by 53.7%), risk factors established in the scientific literature (genetics, Epstein-Barr virus, smoking, vitamin D deficiency/low sunlight exposure; mentioned by 47.7%), and fate/coincidence (mentioned by 3.1%). Our study highlights the importance of mental health issues for theories participants have about the causes of their MS.
conclusionsOur findings emphasize the importance of communication between healthcare professionals and persons with MS about the pathogenesis of MS, the scientific evidence base and mental health.
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Registered trials
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