Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis

Cognitive impairment is increasingly being recognized as a common and disabling symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) that contributes to poor quality of life in affected patients. Despite the high prevalence of cognitive impairment in MS, cognitive function is not assessed routinely in clinical practice or in clinical trials. The perception that cognitive assessments are costly, time-consuming, complicated, and difficult to administer and interpret has contributed, at least in part, to the failure to incorporate cognitive testing into standard clinical evaluation of patients with MS. Detailed studies of cognitive impairment in MS are rare and guidelines for the assessment of cognitive function in MS are lacking.

How to manage cognitive decline in MS also requires further study. Licensed disease-modifying drug (DMD) treatments for MS reduce brain lesion development, and associations between brain lesions and cognitive performance have been reported, providing a rationale for DMD treatment of MS-associated cognitive impairment. There is some evidence for cognitive benefits of DMDs, but as few pivotal DMD trials included cognitive assessments, the effects of these agents on cognition are not fully understood and more studies are needed.

It is only through further studies that it will be possible to identify patients with, or at risk of, cognitive impairment and to provide appropriate therapy to limit the effects of this potentially devastating symptom.