An eight-week calorie-restricted diet plan — known as intermittent fasting — led to immune and metabolic changes among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a small pilot clinical trial, data show. The findings could underlie some of the proposed benefits of calorie restriction on MS disease course, the researchers…

Factors related to disease and personality, as well as specific health-related behaviors, are among the main determinants that can put people with multiple sclerosis (MS) at risk of unemployment, a study suggests. In particular, MS disease course, fatigue, self-efficacy (belief in one’s own abilities to cope, in this…

Pregnancy does not lead to long-term changes in the disease course of multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests. This work, which emphasizes the importance of careful data analysis, supports studies disputing previous beliefs that pregnancy worsened or lessened the long-term disease course of MS. The findings were presented by Mar Tintore,…

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with depression or bipolar disorder may be at higher risk of becoming incapacitated and seeing their disability worsen faster, according to a Swedish study. A depressive state may increase the central nervous system response’s to inflammation and accelerate the…

Genetic variants in the CPXM2, IGSF9B, and NLRP9 genes were found to potentially shape the disease course of multiple sclerosis (MS), and may be used as biomarkers to identify those with an aggressive or…

A University of British Columbia study found a link between depression and increased disability in women with multiple sclerosis. Dr. Kyla McKay said the study of more than 1,200 patients found no link between anxiety or bipolar disorder and increased disability, however. She presented the findings at the 7th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting in…

Patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis have more severe cognitive impairment than those with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, according to a German study that analyzed published data on the topic. PPMS patients did especially poorly on verbal learning and verbal memory tests, said the study, which suggested that PPMS patients need disease management that specifically focuses on their cognitive difficulties, which do not necessarily correlate with the degree of overall disability. The study gathered data from 47 previously published studies in an attempt to analyze potential differences in cognitive performance between patients with RRMS and PPMS. These studies included 4,460 patients — 3,456 with RRMS and 1,004 with PPMS — and plenty of information about patient and disease features. This allowed researchers to perform a meta-analysis of pooled data from various studies, that is considered the highest level of scientific evidence. Researchers noted that PPMS patients performed worse on cognitive tests, both when considering global scores and tests of specific cognitive domains. Yet both groups scored similarly in levels of anxiety, depression and fatigue. Using statistical analyses, the research team found that differences in sex, education, disease duration, manual dexterity and fatigue could not explain the poorer test results among PPMS patients. On the other hand, PPMS patients were, on average, older than those with relapsing disease, and the team found that this difference accounted for poorer test results in cognitive tests of processing speed and working memory. Yet differences in other cognitive aspects also remained when researchers took age into account. Differences in disability, measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale, could also not explain why PPMS patients performed worse on the cognitive tests. A detailed look revealed that the largest differences between RRMS and PPMS patients were in verbal learning and verbal memory, along with the age-associated difference in processing speed. Depression and anxiety also brought down processing speed, researchers said, even though the two groups did not differ in their levels of anxiety and depression. The data shows that cognitive impairment in MS is not directly related to the course of the disease. Research may explain differences in other factors including genetics, the degree of brain tissue loss and medications.

Sex hormones, and genes in the two sex chromosomes, impact the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in men and women differently, and lead to differences in the course of the disease between the sexes, according to two studies. Two speakers at the ACTRIMS 2017 Forum highlighted the role of sex…

A new study published in the journal Statistical Methods in Medical Research revealed a new method to determine the disease course in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The study is entitled “Joint assessment of dependent discrete disease state processes” and was conducted by researchers at…