[From psychometry to neuropsychological disability in multiple sclerosis: a new brief French cognitive screening battery and cognitive risk factors].
BACKGROUND
Cognitive deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS) is a frequent early feature in the disease course, which conditions patients' overall disability. The goals of this study were to validate a reproducible brief screening battery written in French and to examine cognitive risk profiles in patients with a mild physical disability.


METHODS
Cognitive performances of 40 patients with EDSS <4.5 were compared with those of a control group. The study was completed with an analysis of socio-demographic, clinical and psychological variables (questionnaires).


RESULTS
Three tests were discriminative with satisfactory predictive values (positive: 88 percent; negative: 96 percent) and a time duration <30 minutes: PASAT (hard condition), backward digit span, learning stage of California Verbal Learning Test. Four variables were associated with cognitive deficit: educational level <11 years, age >40 years, pathological laughing-crying, unemployment.


CONCLUSIONS
Our brief battery is an easy and reproducible tool. Completed with warning signs indicating the need for neuropsychological screening, this tool provides the practitioner with a global means of assessing disease activity and potentially therapeutic efficacy.
Sartori
E
E
Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier de Bretagne Sud, Lorient. e.sartori@ch-bretagne-sud.fr
Belliard
S
S
Chevrier
C
C
Trebon
P
P
Chaperon
J
J
Edan
G
G
D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020528:Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment