Cognitive Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

In previous studies the estimation of the incidence of intellectual changes in multiple sclerosis has varied from as low as 2 per cent. (Cottrell and Wilson, 1926) to as high as 72 per cent. (Ombredane, 1929). In order to establish the incidence accurately, the most satisfactory method would clearly be a long-term follow-up (covering lifetime) of a sample of multiple sclerosis patients. Any cross-sectional study would include patients in varying degrees of advancement of the disease, and patients found to be free of intellectual deficits at the time of investigation would not necessarily remain so. Also, the indirect psychometric assessment of intellectual loss is notoriously difficult, and the direct method of follow-up would give much more accurate results. The only direct study up to date has been that of Canter (1951), who found a highly significant (i.e. 13·48 points) loss on re-testing multiple sclerosis patients on the Army General Classification Test after a four-year period. Even after such a short period as six months he found slight losses on most Wechsler-Bellevue subtests, in contrast to an average gain of six full IQ points of the control group.

Cognitive profile of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

“…The results here presented are in agreement with several reports of normal verbal and visuospatial span 8,10,[12][13][14][22][23][24] .…”

“…The WAIS Similarities was found to be impaired by Klonoff et al 8 but not by others 10,14 . Deficits in the WAIS Block Design are not commonly reported.…”

“…Memory and learning impairments are being repeatedly demonstrated since the late 60s (e.g. [9][10][11][12][13][14], while general intelligence and language seem to be less affected.…”

Cognitive and affective disturbances in multiple sclerosis

“…Neuropsychological disturbances and psychiatric problems are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) [4,12,18,19,23,24]. It is difficult to differentiate which of the disturbances are due to organic disease and which are psychological reactions to a disease that is always an enormous psychological burden, with an unpredictable course and a potential to lead to severe disability and handicap.…”

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).…”