[Disorders of the neurotransmitter system in multiple sclerosis--possibilities for a therapeutic approach?]

The type and extent of neurological deficits in multiple sclerosis depends on the localisation and size of the lesion and the type of neuropathological pattern of the lesion. The elective demyelinating process (loss of myeline sheath without axonal damage) brings, about a showing and faulty conduction of impulses and thereby a disturbed processing of information. It can finally come to a total (functional, reversible) conduction blockage. Additionally also disturbances in the synaptic transmission may be involved. The occurrence and extent of these disturbances in conduction and transmission depend on definite paristatic factors. Our presented concepts of the "therapeutic model" based on pathophysiological investigations in multiple sclerosis show the tendency towards a "marked symptomatic therapy", which does not however, influence the basis of the disease processes, but rather represents an extremely helpful suppression of symptoms for the patients concerned.