Cognitive, but not mood dysfunction develops in multiple sclerosis during 7 years of follow-up.

Long-term development of psychological deficits in disability-free early multiple sclerosis (MS) was evaluated in 27 female patients over a period of 7 years and compared with healthy controls. Physical and cognitive parameters deteriorated significantly but not depression scores. In particular, the self-assessed somatic complaints remained non-similar between patients and controls. This indicates that although depression is clinically relevant and frequent in MS, in contrast to cognition it is not related to physical disease progression. 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel