Benefits of a cognitive rehabilitation program in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis patients

Abstract

Aim: Assessment of the benefits from a Cognitive Rehabilitation Program in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients. Equipment and methodology: The study was composed by three groups: 1.- Twenty-one RRMS patients who received the Rehabilitation Program; 2.- Nineteen RRMS patients who did not participate in any Rehabilitation Program; 3.- Twenty-six subjects free from the disease. The assessment of the possible benefits on patients from Group 1 was carried out by means of neuropsychological (BRB-N) and psychophysiological (a series of attentional and mnemonic tasks) evaluation in three different time points: A) Before applying the program; B) after the program; C) four months after the program ended. Groups 2 and 3 only undertook evaluations A and B. Results: Group 1 showed a wide range of improvements in several cognitive tasks: reaction time (RT) on Selective Attention tasks (r=0.01) and Working Memory Task (r=0.0008), and also in the percentage of correct answers in a Divided Attention task (r=0.02). There were not significant differences in the groups that did not receive rehabilitation, although some deterioration due to the progress of the disease was appreciated. The healthy control group did not show significant differences between measures, showing that these tasks are reliable and are suitable for longitudinal studies. Conclusions: The Cognitive Rehabilitation Program applied improved the cognitive impairment of RRMS patients, in comparison to the pathological group without treatment that showed a decline in their cognitive abilities. These improvements and no effects in other cognitive tasks show the difficulties in generalizing the benefits after cognitive rehabilitation in patients with RRMS, suggesting a complex process in the brain related with the cognitive rehabilitation program.