Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating disease that leads to the destruction of important structures of the Central Nervous System. These lesions may result in cognitive deficits. Aiming to investigate the relation between multiple sclerosis and cognitive alterations of attention, memory and perception 28 patients have been evaluated in a State Reference Center. They satisfied the following inclusion criteria: age between 20 and 55 years old, minimum scholarship level of High School and classification in the Expanded Disability Status Scale minor than 7.0. Four neuropsychological tests, validated by Federal Council of Psychology, were used: copy and memory reproduction of Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, Rey Audio-Verbal Learning Test, d2 Test and Digit-Span Test. To investigate the impact of fatigue on cognitive activities, MFIS-21Br scale was used. Statistical analysis consisted of ANOVA, pared samples t test or Mann-Whitney test, and Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test, right sided, for rejection of null hypothesis with significance level of .05. The results pointed out statistically significant cognitive losses for patients between 40 and 55 years old as well as for those who presented detriment due to fatigue in cognitive and psychosocial subdomains. Patients with disease duration between 5.0 and 19.9 years presented reduction on test scores, but without statistical significance. It was concluded that, among evaluated cognitive functions, memory was the most frequently compromised, followed by attention, and, perception, comparatively, was the most preserved.
Multiple sclerosis; cognitive deficits; attention; memory; perception
