January 5, 2024 News by Margarida Maia, PhD More cognitive fatigue reported by patients with MS, brain injury Adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) or traumatic brain injury report more cognitive fatigue, or exhaustion resulting from mental work, than do healthy individuals ā regardless of the nature of the tasks being performed ā a study found. However, cognitive fatigue built up at a similar rate among study participants…
June 16, 2022 News by Steve Bryson, PhD Signal Detection Theory May Help Measure MS Cognitive Fatigue 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…
March 2, 2022 Columns by Beth Ullah The Double-edged Sword of Fatigue Medications āI close my eyes/ Only for a moment then the momentās gone/ All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity.ā ā Kansas, “Dust in the Wind”Ā The dark cloud of fatigue first swept through my mind toward the end of 2018. I was no stranger to physical fatigue,…
February 15, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: DMTs and COVID-19 Vaccines, Better Trials, Ocrevus, Spinal Lesions 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.
February 10, 2021 News by Forest Ray PhD Trial to Examine if Ocrevus Eases Cognitive Fatigue in RRMS Researchers at the Kessler Foundation, with support from Genentech, are opening a study into howĀ Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) affects cognitive fatigue ā the feeling of complete exhaustion after focused concentration ā in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Cognitive fatigue is a frequent problem with MS, reported in…
January 25, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Nanocrystals, ‘Cog Fog,’ Mapping MS, Ocrevus Clene Awaits US Patent Covering Gold Nanocrystalsā 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…
January 21, 2021 News by Teresa Carvalho, MS New Study Will Assess Tysabri Effects on MS Cognitive Fatigue Researchers from the Kessler Foundation will launch a new study investigating the effects of Tysabri (natalizumab) on cognitive fatigue ā the type of fatigue that happens after strong mental concentration, such as in problem-solving ā in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Cognitive fatigue, which is very…
January 11, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: DMTs and Disease Progression, Obesity, Sunlight and Relapses, MS Fatigue 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…
January 4, 2021 News by Aisha I Abdullah PhD Mentally Overestimating Motor Tasks May Cause Cognitive Fatigue in MS 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…
September 25, 2017 News by Patricia Silva, PhD Goal Attainment Interventions May Reduce Cognitive Fatigue in MS, Study Finds 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 ā a method that tracks brain activity by monitoring blood flow ā 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.
June 6, 2016 News by Margarida Azevedo, MSc #CMSC16 – MS Care Should Include Fatigue, Sleep Quality and Inattentiveness Assessment, Study Shows 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…
January 23, 2015 News by Patricia Silva, PhD Kessler Foundation Study Says Cognitive Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis Depends on Task Length 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 fatigueĀ exhibited by MS patients is related toĀ the length of the task they are involved in. Fatigue…