title: Impact of depression, fatigue, and global measure of cortical volume on cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the influence of demographic and clinical variables, such as depression, fatigue, and quantitative MRI marker on cognitive performances in a sample of patients affected by multiple sclerosis (MS).
  
  
  METHODS
  60 MS patients (52 relapsing remitting and 8 primary progressive) underwent neuropsychological assessments using Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N), the Beck Depression Inventory-second edition (BDI-II), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). We performed magnetic resonance imaging to all subjects using a 3 T scanner and obtained tissue-specific volumes (normalized brain volume and cortical brain volume). We used Student's t-test to compare depressed and nondepressed MS patients. Finally, we performed a multivariate regression analysis in order to assess possible predictors of patients' cognitive outcome among demographic and clinical variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  27.12% of the sample (16/59) was cognitively impaired, especially in tasks requiring attention and information processing speed. From between group comparison, we find that depressed patients had worse performances on BRB-N score, greater disability and disease duration, and brain volume decrease. According to multiple regression analysis, the BDI-II score was a significant predictor for most of the neuropsychological tests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that the presence of depressive symptoms is an important determinant of cognitive performance in MS patients.
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Domenica
authors: 0000-0002-1538-0830
authors: D
authors: Nunnari
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Maria Cristina
authors: MC
authors: De Cola
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Giangaetano
authors: G
authors: D'Aleo
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Carmela
authors: 0000-0003-4693-7264
authors: C
authors: Rifici
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Margherita
authors: 0000-0002-0730-8118
authors: M
authors: Russo
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Edoardo
authors: E
authors: Sessa
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy.
authors: Placido
authors: 0000-0003-0394-8166
authors: P
authors: Bramanti
authors: Neurobioimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", Via Provinciale Palermo, Contrada Casazza, 98124 Messina, Italy ; Department of Biomedical Sciences and Morphological and Functional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Marino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult