Abstract
Cognitive impairment has been reported at all phases and all subtypes of multiple sclerosis. It remains a major cause of neurological disability in young and middle-aged adults suffering from the disease. The severity and type of cognitive impairment varies considerably among individuals and can be observed both in early and in later stages. The areas which have commonly shown more deficits are: information processing speed, complex attention, memory, and executive function. Even though an alteration in both the white matter and in the gray matter has been found in patients with multiple sclerosis and cognitive impairment, the underlying process still remains unknown. Standardized neurological examinations fail to detect emerging cognitive deficits and self-reported cognitive complaints by the patients can be confounded by other subjective symptoms. This review is a comprehensive and short update of the literature on cognitive dysfunctions, the possible confounders and the impact of quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Highlights
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory and autoimmune demyelinating neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that can affect different functions and that is clinically characterized by relapses, remissions, and progression of disability over time [1, 2]
Cognitive impairment can affect up to 70% of patients with MS [4], it has been reported at all phases and all subtypes of the disease [5]; even though it is more frequent in the secondary progressive type [6] and is a major cause of neurological disability in young and middle-aged adults [2]
The aim of this paper is to review the published literature in a simple and structured way and to write a short and comprehensible updated review about the cognitive dysfunctions, their assessments, the possible confounders, and the impact of quality of life in patients with MS
Summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory and autoimmune demyelinating neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that can affect different functions and that is clinically characterized by relapses, remissions, and progression of disability over time [1, 2]. Jean-Martin Charcot was the first to describe cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis in the nineteenth century [3]. Cognitive impairment can affect up to 70% of patients with MS [4], it has been reported at all phases and all subtypes of the disease [5]; even though it is more frequent in the secondary progressive type [6] and is a major cause of neurological disability in young and middle-aged adults [2]. There are cognitive domains such social cognition [10] and moral cognition [11, 12], which have been less explored in patients with MS
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