Adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) or traumatic brain injury report more cognitive fatigue, or exhaustion resulting from mental work, than do healthy individuals — regardless of the nature of the tasks being performed — a study found. However, cognitive fatigue built up at a similar rate among study participants…

A new tool called signal detection theory (SDT) found a relationship between subjective cognitive fatigue, often experienced by people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and the activation of certain brain regions, a study reported. Although the relationship was found in both patients and healthy controls after cognitive fatigue was…

“I close my eyes/ Only for a moment then the moment’s gone/ All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity.” — Kansas, “Dust in the Wind”  The dark cloud of fatigue first swept through my mind toward the end of 2018. I was no stranger to physical fatigue,…

National MS Society Urges DMT Dosing Changes for COVID-19 Vaccinations The National MS Society has revised its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations first issued about a month ago. The guidelines still say the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are considered safe for people with MS, including those using disease-modifying therapies, or DMTs.

Researchers at the Kessler Foundation, with support from Genentech, are opening a study into how Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) affects cognitive fatigue — the feeling of complete exhaustion after focused concentration — in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Cognitive fatigue is a frequent problem with MS, reported in…

Clene Awaits US Patent Covering Gold Nanocrystals’ Use in Treating MS This is a different approach to MS treatment. It uses very tiny crystals to produce a chemical reaction. It is hoped that this reaction will protect neurons and help to generate myelin. So far, there have only been…

Researchers from the Kessler Foundation will launch a new study investigating the effects of Tysabri (natalizumab) on cognitive fatigue — the type of fatigue that happens after strong mental concentration, such as in problem-solving — in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Cognitive fatigue, which is very…

Study: Past Long-term DMT Use Tapers Risk of Current MS Progression Since being diagnosed in 1980, I’ve used four disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), starting with Avonex (interferon beta-1a) in the late 1990s. I haven’t had a true flare since shortly after my Avonex treatment began. My disease has progressed, but…

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) tend to mentally overestimate the time required to complete a short walking activity, causing cognitive fatigue that may affect their quality of life, a study reports. The connection between cognitive fatigue and imagined motor exercises may offer a potential…

Behavioral therapy focusing on goal attainment might reduce cognitive fatigue in multiple sclerosis patients, finds a study that used brain imaging to examine goal-oriented tasks involving rewards. Since fatigue is one of the most common MS symptoms, affecting up to 90 percent of patients, researchers at the Kessler Foundation in East Hanover, New Jersey, say their findings could open the door to new non-medication approaches to treating MS-related fatigue. Scientists believe that a part of the brain, called the fronto-striatal network, causes fatigue. But studies also show that the network is active during goal attainment tasks, and that such tasks can reduce fatigue in healthy people. Equipped with this knowledge, Kessler researchers recruited 19 MS patients and 14 healthy controls, and exposed them to one of two conditions. In the first, they had the chance to win money while gambling. Researchers called this the outcome condition. The second condition did not include the prospect of a reward, or outcome. The tasks were performed in a brain scanner. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain — a method that tracks brain activity by monitoring blood flow — researchers could study how different tasks activated the fronto-striatal network. It turned out that the prospect of a reward activated parts of the network in deep brain structures, while parts of the prefrontal cortex were more active during the task without a potential reward. Importantly, the activation seen during the reward condition was linked to significantly lower levels of fatigue, which researchers measured outside the scanner. While researchers used a gambling task to study the process, similar exercises like achieving a good score on a test, might work equally well, researchers said. In fact, goal attainment is already incorporated in many neuropsychological rehabilitation efforts, including in MS.

Mayis Al Dughmi, of the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Kansas Medical Center, recently presented her findings on the relationship between fatigue, measured using the Neurological Fatigue Index (NFI-MS), and sleep quality and attentiveness in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings indicate that cognitive…

A study from a team of researchers at the Kessler Foundation provides new findings on multiple sclerosis (MS). According to the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, cognitive fatigue exhibited by MS patients is related to the length of the task they are involved in. Fatigue…