Cognitive impairment in patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with EDSS ≤ 3.5

Abstract

Cognitive decline was present even when physical disability was not yet severe, but it was mild and did not limit patients' ability to work. The cognitive impairment outlined was of the subcortical type and correlated with illness duration. This study emphasizes the importance of cognitive examination in clinical practice. It is suggested that a complete neurological examination include tests on memory and abstract reasoning.

The use of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) in neuropsychological assessment: Application in Brazilian research with control children and adults with neurological disorders.

“…The neurological disorders investigated in the present report (i.e., multiple sclerosis [MS] and Duchenne muscular dystrophy [DMD]) are known to affect neuropsychological function (Balsimelli, Mendes, Bertolucci, & Tilbery, 2007;Beatty, Goodkin, Monson, & Beatty, 1989;Cyrulnik et al, 2008;D'Angelo & Bresolin, 2006;De Luca, Chelune, Tulsky, Lengenfelder, & Chiaravalloti, 2004;Desguerre et al, 2009;Dorman, Hurley, & D'Avignon, 1988;Giliberto, Ferreiro, Dalamon, & Szijan, 2004;Grant, McDonald, Trimble, Smith, & Reed, 1984;Hinton, De Vivo, Nereo, Goldstein, & Stern, 2001;Laatu, Revonsuo, Hämäläinen, Ojanen, & Ruutiainen, 2001;Miller, Tunnecliffe, & Douglas, 1985;Moizard et al, 1998;Parmenter, Schucerd, Benedict, & Schucard, 2006;Parmenter, Shucard, & Shucard, 2007;Plohmann et al, 1998;;Rao, 2004;Ruggieri et al, 2003;Santiago, Guardia, Casado, Carmona, & Arbizu, 2007;Vleugels et al, 2000Vleugels et al, , 2001.…”

Short-Term Cognitive Training Improves Mental Efficiency and Mood in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

“…In general, short-term memory and implicit learning often remained unimpaired, in contrary to working and long-term memory deficits and in particular delayed reproduction and impaired recognition were debated [1, 4, 12]. With respect to attention, mainly selective or shared attention were found to be impaired [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. This has been explained by a general reduced speed of information processing, due to an impaired transmission of the stimulus information by axons and neurons, resulting in deficits in cognitive functions that are time dependent or require a high degree of flexibility [15,16,17,18,19,20,21].…”

“…Patients with a chronic-progressive course, and in particular with increased physical impairment, experienced significantly more loss of achievement over time than patients with a benign or relapsing-remitting course and little physical impairment [5,6,7,8,9]. However, at low levels of physical disability due to MS, the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) seemed to be an unreliable predictor for the extent and type of cognitive deficits [10], in contrary to anxiety and depression [11]. In general, short-term memory and implicit learning often remained unimpaired, in contrary to working and long-term memory deficits and in particular delayed reproduction and impaired recognition were debated [1, 4, 12].…”

Multiple sclerosis risk perception and acceptance for Brazilian patients

“…One might say that older patients are at higher risk for cognitive impairment and, since this study was not designed to evaluate cognition, this could bias the results presented in Table 3. On the other hand, it is known that a higher EDSS score and disease duration are also related to cognitive impairment in MS 23,24 , and these two variates were not associated with higher risk-taking behaviors, thus reassuring that an older age might, indeed, be an independent factor for risk-acceptance.…”