Dementia in Multiple Sclerosis

Why Is It Rarely Discussed?

Westervelt, Holly James

Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville TN 37240, USA

Corresponding author at: Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks, 719 Thompson Lane, Suite 24000, Nashville TN 37204, USA. Tel.: +1-615-875-1916; fax: +1-615-343-2589. E-mail address:[email protected] (H.J. Westervelt).

Accepted December 24, 2014

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 30(2):p 174-177, March 2015. | DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acu095

Cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) have been well studied in decades of MS research. Severe deficits are acknowledged, but the frequency is minimized in the literature, and there is a striking lack of discussion of the presence of a dementia state in MS. Possible reasons for this omission are discussed, along with an argument to define the dementia state and to provide terminology that will be palatable to patients.