Editorial

Abstract

In the 5 years since I officially took over as Editor in Chief of the International Journal of MS Care, we have been privileged to publish many wonderful contributions meant to help improve the lives of MS patients and their caregivers. The current issue continues this tradition in providing an excellent group of articles covering a variety of subjects. This issue is somewhat bittersweet for me, however, as it is my second-to-last issue as Editor in Chief: In January 2014, I will be passing the baton to my able colleague Francois Bethoux, a physiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic's Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Bethoux will introduce himself and his vision for the journal in the coming issues. We look forward to continued growth and evolution of the IJMSC in the years to come. The rest of the journal's editorial staff—our managing editor Annette Theuring and our project manager Maria Stadtler—will be remaining in their current roles, hopefully for a long time to come.The current issue continues our ongoing collaboration with the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS), another special project (like the IJMSC) of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), as Dr. Kister and colleagues from New York University, along with collaborators from NARCOMS at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, examine the natural history of MS symptoms. This article presents “symptom prevalence tables” that chart the frequency and severity of impairment over time in 11 neurologic domains among over 25,000 NARCOMS participants. These tables afford patients and practitioners a comparison group for individual patients with similar disease duration. Also looking at the natural history of demyelinating disease, but in a different manner, Dr. Marrie and Ms. Gryba of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, review the prevalence and epidemiology of neuromyelitis optica. This condition is similar to MS and, although rare, is treated in all large MS clinics. Their review brings IJMSC readers up to date in this rapidly evolving area and points to future research challenges.Two articles in the current issue discuss the potential interactions of disease-modifying therapies and symptoms in MS. Dr. Kirzinger and colleagues from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and Inter-mountain Healthcare in Utah investigated the relationship between depression and the first-line therapies of interferon beta and glatiramer acetate, finding no clear evidence of an association with either agent. Dr. Wilken of Georgetown University, along with colleagues scattered throughout the country, looked at the possible effect of what is more commonly considered a second-line agent, natalizumab, on cognition and fatigue scores of treated patients. Fatigue showed improvement within the first 12 weeks of therapy, which was sustained out to 48 weeks, and cognitive performance improved or remained stable over the same period.To round out our fall issue, two articles examine the beneficial effects of a team approach to assisting MS patients and their caregivers. Dr. Swank of Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas and colleagues at Texas Woman's University studied the feasibility of aerobic exercise in MS patients, finding that such exercise had a secondary effect of improving mood. Dr. Rintell of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts, with Dr. Melito (in private practice) suggest ways to help with adjustment to illness in newly diagnosed patients using psycho-educational intervention to improve outcomes.In closing, we are pleased to announce that the IJMSC has received an Award of Excellence in the APEX 2013 Awards for Publication Excellence competition, which recognizes outstanding publications of all types for their overall quality and communications effectiveness. More information is available at our website at IJMSC.org. We would also like to remind you that the CMSC is now accepting abstract submissions for presentation at the annual meeting in Dallas in May 2014. For more information, please visit http://www.annualmeeting.mscare.org.Happy reading!