Cognitive impairment in primary and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Clinical Neurology

Background:

• Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease.
• Progressive forms of MS include primary-progressive MS (PPMS) and secondary-progressive MS (SPMS).
• Cognitive dysfunction is a known complication in MS, but characterization across subtypes requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize cognitive subtypes in patients with PPMS and SPMS using neuropsychological data.
• To compare cognitive performance between PPMS patients, SPMS patients, and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 121 MS patients (36 PPMS, 85 SPMS) and 40 healthy controls underwent a cognitive test battery.
• Assessment focused on executive functioning, memory, and attention.
• Statistical analyses were performed to compare performance between groups.

Main Results:

• PPMS patients demonstrated a trend towards greater cognitive impairment than SPMS patients (50% vs. 37%), though not statistically significant.
• PPMS patients exhibited significantly poorer performance in verbal learning (p < 0.05) and verbal fluency (p < 0.05).
• PPMS patients had significantly shorter disease durations (p < 0.05) but comparable disability levels to SPMS patients.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive deficits are prevalent in progressive MS.
• Patients with PPMS appear to be more frequently and severely affected by cognitive impairments than those with SPMS.
• The high prevalence of cognitive involvement in PPMS, especially in verbal domains, is a novel finding.