Progressive cognitive improvement in multiple sclerosis from treatment with electromagnetic fields.

It has long been recognized that cognitive impairment occurs in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) particularly among patients with a chronic progressive course. MS is considered a type of "subcortical dementia" in which cognitive and behavioral abnormalities resemble those observed in patients with a frontal lobe syndrome. The Bicycle Drawing Test is employed for the neuropsychological assessment of cognitive impairment specifically that of mechanical reasoning and visuographic functioning. It also provides clues concerning the patient's organizational skills which are subserved by the frontal lobes. Extracerebral pulsed applications of picotesla flux intensity electromagnetic fields (EMFs) have been shown to improve cognitive functions in patients with MS. I present three patients with long standing symptoms of MS who, on the initial baseline, pretreatment Bicycle Drawing Test, exhibited cognitive impairment manifested by omissions of essential details and deficient organizational skills. All patients demonstrated progressive improvement in their performance during treatment with EMFs lasting from 6-18 months. The improvement in cognitive functions, which occurred during the initial phases of the treatment, was striking for the changes in organizational skills reflecting frontal lobe functions. These findings demonstrate that progressive recovery of cognitive functions in MS patients are observed over time through continued administration of picotesla flux intensity EMFs. It is believed that the beneficial cognitive effects of these EMFs are related to increased synaptic neurotransmission and that the progressive cognitive improvement noted in these patients is associated with slow recovery of synaptic functions in monoaminergic neurons of the frontal lobe or its projections from subcortical areas.