[Cognitive functions in multiple sclerosis]

Although the presence of intellectual impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) is known since the first studies of the disease frequently the impairment goes equally undetected for the patients, their family and the physician because the physical dysfunction is much more outstanding. In this study a population of 50 persons suffering clinically definite MS (Poser's criteria) and 50 healthy controls matched with the patients in sex, age and cultural level were submitted to a neuropsychological test battery (NPTB). The existence of a correlation between the punctuation obtained in the NPTB and factors such as the level of disability, the time of evolution, the type of MS and the work status was searched. The results show a greater difficulty in doing tasks requiring attention-concentration skills thus giving the MS patients significantly lower scores in the memory test when compared with the controls. The execution of all tests was worse in those forms of MS with the longest time of evolution, higher EDSS scores and the chronic-progressive types. In our study the loss of the working status was never due to the intellectual impairment, it was because of the physical disability.