Multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease: survival and how certified after death

This study assesses the outcome of a random sample of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and motor neurone disease (MND) selected from a previous study carried out between the years 1960 and 1972. Of the MND patients who are now dead, 20% of the women and 27% of the men lived longer than five years after hospitalised diagnosis, and two of these patients lived up to 19 years after diagnosis in hospital. Also, 10.7% of the random sample of MND patients were still alive in June 1985. Of the MS deaths 26.4% and of the MND deaths 20.4% did not have these respective conditions recorded on the death certificates.