Psychometric Patterns Associated With Multiple Sclerosis

Psychological consequences of brain lesions and ablations.

“…Research is just now beginning to appear in connection with presumably subcortical neurological degeneration such as is found in multiple sclerosis. Although somewhat contradictory results have emerged with respect to possible mental deterioration concomitant with multiple sclerosis (25,53,68), differences in the populations studied and in the duration of the disease may account for these discrepancies. Canter (53), for example, found definite evidence of deterioration among patients in the early phases of the disease when compared with both their own military induction test scores and a control group of clinic employees.…”

“…Canter (53), for example, found definite evidence of deterioration among patients in the early phases of the disease when compared with both their own military induction test scores and a control group of clinic employees. Diers and Brown (68) reported no evidence of decline, while Baldwin (25) reported loss of abstract ability in some patients and no apparent decline for many others.…”

The Effects of Picotesla Range Magnetic Fields on Visuospatial Functions in Multiple Sclerosis

“…Recent studies have confirmed the high incidence of cognitive disturbances in patients with MS (Kahana et al, 1971;Kurtzke et al, 1972;Staples & Lincoln, 1979;Grant et al, 1984;Rao et al, 1984;Filley et al, 1989;Franklin et al, 1990;White, 1990) and it has been suggested that MS be considered a form of "subcortical" dementia, characterized by deficits in visuospatial and memory functions with intact verbal skills (Caine et al, 1986;Rao, 1986). However, other authors have reported also verbal and language loss in MS patients including deficits on the WAIS vocabulary test, naming, reading, and verbal fluency (Diers & Brown, 1950;Jambor, 1969;Ivnik, 1978;Grant et al, 1984;Heaton et al, 1985).…”

“…More recent studies employing standardized neuropsychological tests have demonstrated cognitive dysfunction in 46% of patients with a relapsing-remitting course of disease and in 63% to 72% of patients with a chronic progressive pattern (Rao et al, 1984;Heaton et al, 1985). Most investigators emphasized the high incidence of attentional, visuospatial, and visuomotor impairment in patients with MS (Diers & Brown, 1950;Ross & Reitan, 1955;Goldstein & Shelly, 1974;Franklin et al, 1989) which is related to the multiplicity of MS lesion sites that produce loss of visuospatial abilities (e.g., optic nerves, white matter, reticular system, and cerebellum) (Brownell & Hughes, 1962).…”

Psychologic Studies in Neurologic Diseases—a Review: Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis*

“…In studies on intellectual and cognitive functioning in M.S., there appears to be more divergence in results. On the one hand, Diers and Brown (7) reported that there were no apparent changes of a mental nature attributable to cortical pathology in their group, as based upon the results of intelligence tests. Baldwin (8) stated that in M.S., deterioration of an organic mental nature may or may not be present.…”