THE COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: DO WE FACE FROM THE EARLY TERMS?

Objectives: the diversity of physical and cognitive impairments seen in multiple sclerosis (ms), make it difficult to make the definition and classification of physical and cognitive disabilities and to identify the factors that influence neurorehabilitation programs and outcomes. in the view of the complexities of both multiple sclerosis (ms) and the rehabilitation process, this preliminary study’s aim was to determine the cognitive dysfunctions by conducting on early term relapsing-remitting ms (rrms) patients. methodology: cognitive performances of 27 early term rrms patients and 27 individually s ex-age matched volunteer healthy controls (hc) were compared. each patient underwent a complete clinical assessment, including depression, disability and comprehensive cognitive function [attention: stroop tests, memory and perception: wechsler memory scale-revised (wms-r) subtests]. results: there were statistically significant differences between groups for all subtests of stroop (p<0.05), wms-digit span (p<0.05), wms-logical memory (p<0.001) and wms-visual reproduction (p<0.001). the significance remained while the depression’s effect was controlled. there was a statistically significant difference between visual reproduction of immediate (wms-vri) and delayed (wms-vrd) memory in rrms patient group (p<0.05). in the light of results it was recorded that, deficient cognitive performance is predominantly apparent in early term rrms patients. conclusion: cognitive assessment and rehabilitation must be in the context of multidisciplinary rehabilitation of rrms patients from the early terms.