Epub: Sumowski JF et al. Cognitive reserve in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler 2012.
Background: Consistent with the cognitive reserve hypothesis, lifetime intellectual enrichment protects MS patients from cognitive impairment. As studies have focused predominately on patients with relapsing-remitting courses, it is unknown whether lifetime enrichment is protective against cognitive impairment in patients with secondary-progressive MS (SPMS), a more advanced disease course.
Objective: Examine whether greater lifetime intellectual enrichment moderates/reduces the deleterious effect of SPMS on memory and cognitive efficiency.
Methods: Twenty-five SPMS patients and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed neuropsychological tasks, yielding two composite scores: memory and cognitive efficiency. An estimate of lifetime enrichment was created from educational attainment and vocabulary knowledge.
Results: Interactions emerged between intellectual enrichment and group when predicting memory (p = 0.041) and cognitive efficiency (p = 0.024), such that SPMS patients exhibited deficits relative to HCs at lower levels of enrichment, but these SPMS-related cognitive deficits were absent at higher levels of enrichment.
Conclusion: Intellectual enrichment protects SPMS patients from cognitive impairment, thereby extending the cognitive reserve hypothesis to this more advanced MS disease course.
"This result is not surprising and would fit with what we know about cognitive function in other dementing diseases."
Background: Consistent with the cognitive reserve hypothesis, lifetime intellectual enrichment protects MS patients from cognitive impairment. As studies have focused predominately on patients with relapsing-remitting courses, it is unknown whether lifetime enrichment is protective against cognitive impairment in patients with secondary-progressive MS (SPMS), a more advanced disease course.
Objective: Examine whether greater lifetime intellectual enrichment moderates/reduces the deleterious effect of SPMS on memory and cognitive efficiency.
Methods: Twenty-five SPMS patients and 25 healthy controls (HC) completed neuropsychological tasks, yielding two composite scores: memory and cognitive efficiency. An estimate of lifetime enrichment was created from educational attainment and vocabulary knowledge.
Results: Interactions emerged between intellectual enrichment and group when predicting memory (p = 0.041) and cognitive efficiency (p = 0.024), such that SPMS patients exhibited deficits relative to HCs at lower levels of enrichment, but these SPMS-related cognitive deficits were absent at higher levels of enrichment.
Conclusion: Intellectual enrichment protects SPMS patients from cognitive impairment, thereby extending the cognitive reserve hypothesis to this more advanced MS disease course.
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| Environmental / intellectual enrichment protects against the ravages of cognitive impairment. |
"This result is not surprising and would fit with what we know about cognitive function in other dementing diseases."
Are people who get MS around age 30 or later at an advantage? They've had more time to build up cognitive reserves
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