cognitive dysfunctions of multiple sclerosis: do we face from the early terms?

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. 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]. 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. Cognitive assessment and rehabilitation must be in the context of multidisciplinary rehabilitation of RRMS patients from the early terms

Cognitive functions in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

Recent studies have focused on the nature of cognitive dysfunction in bipolar patients. The purpose of the current study was to investigate cognitive performance of individuals with bipolar disorder compared to healthy control subjects during a well-established euthymic period. The sample consisted of 27 bipolar euthymic patients and 21 control subjects. Verbal and visual memory performance, attention, executive functions and psychosocial functions were evaluated for each partticipant. Bipolar patients showed significant attentional deficit and executive dysfunction and also poor performance on verbal and visual memory tasks compared to the controls. Illness duration and lifetime total episode number and previous episode with psychotic features was associated with worsened performance on attention, executive and memory tasks. Psychosocial functioning was not associated with cognitive deficit. The present study showed persistent cognitive impairment on inhibitory control and selective attention as well as poor performance on verbal and visual memory tests in a group of bipolar euthymic patients. The impaired neuropsychological performance was associated with duration of illness, total number of episodes per lifetime, and previous episodes with psychotic features. Attentional dysfunction seemed to be a trait abnormality for the sample studied