title: The natural history of multiple sclerosis.
abstract: The natural history of chronic diseases is generally poorly understood. Multiple sclerosis is one of the best-studied diseases and we outline here some of the information obtained from 25,000 patient-years of observation. This population-based cohort received almost no treatment and certainly none known to alter the long-term natural course of the illness. There is a possibility that such data will prove useful in new generation clinical trials which are observational in nature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurology, Radcliff Infirmary, University of Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Ebers
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012008:Recurrence