Rehabilitation interventions for the management of multiple sclerosis relapse: a short scoping review

This review was undertaken to identify and summarize the existing evidence regarding postrelapse rehabilitation interventions in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Literature searches were conducted within the following databases: CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE via Ovid, and PsycINFO via CSA Illumina. The following terms were searched as subject headings or keywords: choice behavior, counseling, decision making, disease management, health education, health promotion, patient education, patient participation, patient satisfaction, psychotherapy, rehabilitation, self-care, self-management. Then these searches were combined with the subject headings for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and subject heading or keywords for recurrence/relapse. Through the initial database search and additional citation search, 260 potentially relevant citations were identified. After screening the titles and abstracts as well as the citation search results, the reviewers agreed to keep five studies for the full-text reviews. Three rehabilitation intervention studies were included in the final review.

A combined total of 145 adults who experienced a relapse within the previous 5 months received 3 to 18 days of rehabilitation. All three studies suggested the benefit of multidisciplinary rehabilitation for individuals with MS to improve impairment or disability.

The three multidisciplinary rehabilitation interventions included in this review appear to be effective in improving impairment or disability of people with MS who experienced a relapse. Given the limited number of studies and their methodological limitations, the results must be interpreted cautiously. Further investigation is needed to better understand the rehabilitation needs of people with MS after relapse in order to improve research and care.