Multiple sclerosis: understanding the psychologic implications.

To effectively care for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) the practitioner must be able to understand the common psychologic sequellae. These include not only those engendered by the patient's reaction to the disease, but also those reflecting alterations in central nervous system function. Although research literature on MS has many pitfalls and the quality of the results is thus uneven, important psychologic aspects of MS that have been consistently reported are depression and anxiety, euphoria, often in association with some degree of dementia, denial of illness or of impairments, irritability and apathy, coexisting psychiatric disorders, and cognitive impairment, particularly involving sensorimotor function, primary memory, and conceptual ability.