en Psychiatry Psychiatry Original Research Original Research <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Background: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a rare disease that can bring different emotional, physical, and psychological burdens. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in patients with ALS.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Methods:</b> This is a cross-sectional study. Fifty-two patients contributed in this study. The setting was an ALS clinic in Iran. A mixed method was used in this study. We applied a short form of the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL) to measure the quality of life of patients. Also, all participants were interviewed through the semi-structured interview guide. To measure physical strength and functioning the Appel ALS Rating Scale (AALS) was employed in this study. To analyze the data, a two-tailed t-test and x2 test were used.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; Results: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">42.3% of the participants were female. The age of the participants ranged between 28 to 81 (mean=57.6). The disease duration ranged from 0.07 to 14 years (mean=1.8). The overall mean QOL was 58.7 (&plusmn;8.1). The overall mean of the AALS score was 74.4 (&plusmn;24.2). The results of the qualitative part of the study showed four psychosocial themes: (1) internal personality traits, communicating with friends and family; (2) religion and spirituality; (3) stress, mood changes, and difficult relationship; and (4) changes in lifestyle, work, leisure time and financial situation.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Conclusion:</b> Despite recent advances, ALS is still one of the diseases for which there is no effective treatment. Paying attention to psychosocial issues in patients with ALS can play a very important role in increasing the quality of life of patients.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <br> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:91%"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:91%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></span> Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Quality of Life, Appel ALS Rating Scale, Iran 610 615 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-7065-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mohamad Fathi fathi_mansor@yahoo.com 200319475328460078541 200319475328460078541 No Department of Health Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran Mastooreh Sedaghat m_sedaghat@azad.ac.ir 200319475328460078542 200319475328460078542 No Department of Psychology, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Hasan Ahadi ahadi@atu.ac.ir 200319475328460078543 200319475328460078543 Yes Department of Psychology, Allameh Tabatabaie, Tehran, Iran