Comparison of Cognitive Rehabilitation versus Donepezil Therapy on Memory Performance, Attention, Quality of Life, and Depression among Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

Mohammad Mahdi Shahpouri,Ali Safaei,Mahgol Tavakoli,Omid Mirmosayyeb,Vahid Shaygannejad,Majid Barekatain

doi:10.1155/2020/8874424

Abstract

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that affects cognitive performance and leads to depression and decreased quality of life (QOL). The current study aims to assess the effects of cognitive rehabilitation versus donepezil therapy on memory, attention, depression, and QOL in MS patients compared to placebo and control groups. Methods Eighty MS patients were randomly selected from parallel randomized trials and divided into four groups: A: cognitive rehabilitation (10 sessions of 120 minutes), B: control (no intervention), C: donepezil (10 mg daily), and D: placebo. Patients received the intervention for three months. They were assessed for cognitive status, depression, and QOL prior to the intervention and immediately after that using abbreviated mental test (AMT), prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire (PRMQ), everyday memory questionnaire (EMQ), digit span, MSQOL-54, and second edition Beck depression inventory (BDI). We compared scores between groups after the intervention, as well as the progression of scores in every single group. Results. The cognitive rehabilitation group showed improvement in EMQ, RPMQ, digit span, physical and mental health subscales of MSQOL54, and depression (P < 0.05). We observed the same effect for donepezil except for the digit span test (P = 0.15). Intergroup comparison of scores showed the superiority of cognitive rehabilitation over donepezil in digit span, depression, and mental health scores. Conclusion Both donepezil and cognitive rehabilitation effectively improve memory performance, attention, depression, and QOL in MS patients. Cognitive rehabilitation is superior altogether. This study is registered with the Iranian registry of clinical trials http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/IRCT2016042227522N1.

Highlights

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating inflammatory disease that involves the central nervous system (CNS) and leads to the formation of focal lesions [1]
Study Population. e current study is a prospective study on subjects from two parallel double-blind randomized clinical trials conducted on 80 patients referred to Multiple Sclerosis Clinic of Kashani Hospital, affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, in 2018. e eligibility criteria were patients ≥18 years with the diagnosis of MS based on the McDonald criteria [17], with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) [18] ≤5.5, mild/moderate memory impairment, who were able to read and write
We found statistically significant improvement with regard to prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire (PRMQ), everyday memory questionnaire (EMQ), quality of life (QOL), and depression in cognitive rehabilitation and donepezil groups (p < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating inflammatory disease that involves the central nervous system (CNS) and leads to the formation of focal lesions [1]. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that affects cognitive performance and leads to depression and decreased quality of life (QOL). E current study aims to assess the effects of cognitive rehabilitation versus donepezil therapy on memory, attention, depression, and QOL in MS patients compared to placebo and control groups. E cognitive rehabilitation group showed improvement in EMQ, RPMQ, digit span, physical and mental health subscales of MSQOL54, and depression (P < 0.05). Intergroup comparison of scores showed the superiority of cognitive rehabilitation over donepezil in digit span, depression, and mental health scores. Both donepezil and cognitive rehabilitation effectively improve memory performance, attention, depression, and QOL in MS patients. Cognitive rehabilitation is superior altogether. is study is registered with the Iranian registry of clinical trials http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/IRCT2016042227522N1

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