What are the symptoms and prognosis of multiple-sclerosis?

Answer 1

Many MS patients are temperature sensitive. In hotter weather or during a period of raised body temperature, their MS symptoms worsen. Most frequently, vision is affected and muscle weakness occurs.

About two-thirds of MS patients experience pain at some point during the course of the disease and 40% are never pain free. MS causes many pain syndromes; some are acute, while others are chronic. Some worsen with age and disease progression. Pain syndromes associated with MS are trigeminal (facial) pain, powerful spasms and cramps, optic neuritis pain, pressure pain, stiffened joints, and a variety of sensations including feelings of itching, burning, and shooting pain.

The Lhermitte's sign can occur, which is actually more of a symptom than a sign. A tingling or electric-like sensation down the back and legs is felt upon flexing the neck. The symptom is non-specific, but occurs more frequently in MS than in any other condition and provides an important clue to the correct diagnosis.

Urinary incontinence affects up to 90% of people with multiple sclerosis and usually occurs before major physical disability is apparent. Bladder problems are due to plaques in the spinal cord. If demyelination occurs in both controlling pathways, the bladder will neither store urine nor empty it properly. Constipation affects about 40% of people with MS. Bowel incontinence and urgency of defecation can also occur in about half of people with MS.

Fatigue is a common complaint in MS. Characteristics of fatigue include muscle weakness, coordination problems, ataxia, transient deafness, changes in taste or smell and numbness of the extremities. Spasticity occurs in up to 90% of MS patients and it can be painful and distressing. Spasticity is characterized by weakness, loss of dexterity, and the inability to control specific movements. It is usually more severe in the legs and torso.

Sexual dysfunction is common among people with multiple sclerosis. If MS damages the nerve pathways from the brain to the sexual organs via the spinal cord, sexual response can be directly affected. Physicians and people with MS often neglect to deal with this aspect of the disease, and both treatments and strategies for success are available.

Depression is common in MS; some studies show that over 50% of people with MS have depression at some point in their lifetime. There is also an increased risk of suicide. If depression is present, it should be treated prior to initiating MS therapy. Depression in those with MS is treated in the same way as the general population.

Prognosis

It is generally very difficult to predict the course of MS. The disorder varies greatly in each individual, but most people with MS can expect to live 95% of the normal life expectancy. Some studies have shown that people who have few attacks in the first several years after diagnosis, long intervals between attacks, complete recovery from attacks, and attacks that are sensory in nature (i.e., numbness or tingling) tend to fare better. People who have early symptoms of tremor, difficulty in walking, or who have frequent attacks with incomplete recoveries, or more lesions visible on MRI scans early on, tend to have a more progressive disease course.

Refer to:

http://www.answers.com/multiple-sclerosis?cat=health&gwp=11&method=3&ver=2.3.0.609