Neuropsychological stability in multiple sclerosis.

Abstract

The neuropsychological performances of 14 patients who had multiple sclerosis (MS) and who received repeated testings spaced over time by at least 1 year were compared with identical evaluations of 14 patients who had neurological involvement but not MS. Subjects in each group were individually matched on chronological age at first testing, length of test-retest interval, sex, and years of formal education. Performance decrements attributable to the demyelination process of MS were primarily manifested on tasks requiring motor proficiency or complex sensory discriminations. Tests of higher order cognitive functions (e.g., abstractions, speech perception) were less adversely affected, except for measures having significant motor components. Preliminary Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory data are also presented. The results indicate relative preservation or only mild deterioration for most intellectual abilities despite worsened motor-sensory functioning.

Neuropsychology of multiple sclerosis: A critical review

“…Findings suggestive of a decline in intellectual functions were also observed in a longitudinal study by Ivnik (1978b). He matched 14 patients with MS to 14 patients with verified brain damage of various etiologies on age and education.…”

“…Using the Wechsler scales, several studies have compared the performance of MS patients to that of various control groups, including normals (Jambor, 1969, Parsons, Stewart, & Arenberg, 1957Reitan, Reed, & Dyken, 1971), brain-damaged patients (Goldstein & Shelly, 1974;Ivnik, 1978b, Jambor, 1969, non-brain-damaged, neurologically disabled patients (Jambor, 1969), and psychiatric patients (Goldstein & Shelly, 1974;Jambor, 1969). These studies are noteworthy for the lack of significant mean group differences both for the IQ and individual subtest scores.…”

Psychological and neuropsychological predictors of coping patterns by patients with multiple sclerosis

“…An obvious limitation of these findings is that the data from the NP tests were obtained 1 to 2 years before the coping measures. Although this is a potential problem, it should be noted that performance by MS patients on tests that do not have a substantial sensory-motor component remains stable or shows only a slight decline for test-retest intervals of up to 3 years (Bernardin, 1992;Ivnik, 1978). Even if one assumes some decline in test performance over the period of our study, there is no reason to predict a systematic change in the relative ranking of the patients' performances on the various tests.…”

Selective Decline in Information Processing in Subgroups of Multiple Sclerosis: An 8-Year Longitudinal Study

“…Language disorders are rarely reported in MS [54]. According to Feinstein [17], agnosia, apraxia, and language difficulties are absent or mild in MS. Ivnik [18] reported that verbal skills were relatively intact during a 3-year follow-up period. Caine et al [14], Rao et al [5] and Achiron et al [15] found that verbal fluency was affected in MS patients.…”

“…For instance, Ivnik [18] found that verbal skills remained relatively intact, whereas psychomotor performance deteriorated during a 3-year follow-up period. The cognitive longitudinal dysfunction may also be selective in terms of disease course [19].…”