Cognitive assessment in patients with multiple sclerosis: From neuropsychological batteries to ecological tools

Cognitive impairment (CI) is frequent in patients with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and could negatively affect family social and vocational activities. Detecting CI is clinically relevant, so the emerging question is the strategy for assessing cognition in MS.

An update on cognitive assessment in PwMS with use of standard neuropsychological (NP) tests and ecological tools.

The minimal cognitive assessment in MS should include at least NP tests assessing information processing speed (IPS) and verbal and visuospatial episodic memory. The IPS could be easily and quickly evaluated with symbol digit substitution tests by using paper for the oral version of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test or a laptop for the Computerised Speed Cognitive Test. The comprehensive NP battery must be performed by a qualified neuropsychologist to adequately characterize the extent and severity of CI in PwMS. The quiet and controlled environment used for this standardized assessment could be a limitation for generalizing the results because it does not reflect real daily life conditions. Thus, this context could decrease the ability to detect some cognitive deficits that could occur only in more complex situations. Thus, ecological evaluation seems a complementary and promising approach for detecting cognitive abnormalities in daily activities.

Recent efforts have been made to detect and characterize cognitive deficits in PwMS. Some IPS and episodic memory NP tests have been validated in MS and should be proposed to patients in the clinical setting. Besides NP tests, ecological tools are becoming important for detecting cognitive dysfunction in everyday-like conditions. Further research is needed to validate relevant tools for monitoring cognition in MS and the ability to detect clinically meaningful change in longitudinal studies.