How Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Perceive Cognitive Slowing

Abstract

Slowed processing speed is the primary cognitive deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, no studies have examined how patients perceive this deficit. The purpose of this paper is to examine perceived processing speed difficulties in clinical and community samples of MS patients. As expected, MS patients reported more processing speed difficulties than controls. Perceived processing speed difficulties were significantly associated with impulsivity, slowed motor speed, greater anxiety, and increased introversion. In contrast, perceived processing speed did not correlate well with objective measures of processing speed. Findings showed that MS patients perceive their thinking to be significantly slowed. Perceived cognitive slowing was most related to performance on motor tasks and elevated anxiety. Evaluation of anxiety and patient education about objective measures versus subjective perceptions of slowed processing speed may be helpful to MS patients who report significant cognitive slowing.

Keywords:

• Multiple sclerosis
• Processing speed
• Anxiety
• Self-report
• Motor functioning
• Cognitive rehabilitation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Research Assistants Laura Hancock, M.A., Josie Tyrer, Bryan Fox, Lauren Buscher, Melanie Somogie, and Anthony Stabler for their help with data collection, and to Professor Douglas R. Denney for suggestions about the manuscript.

Study 2 was funded in part by a grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society [pilot grant PP1506] to the corresponding author.