Fatigue, cognitive functioning and depression in paediatric MS

Epub ahead of printGoretti et al. Fatigue and its relationships with cognitive functioning and depression in paediatric multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2011 Aug 15.

Background: There is limited information on fatigue and its clinical and psychosocial correlates in children and adolescent MS'ers.

Objective: To assess the relationships between fatigue, cognitive functioning and depression in paediatric MS.

Results: In total, 57 patients with RRMS were compared with 70 healthy controls.

Percentages of fatigued patients ranged from 9% to 14% according to self-reports, and from 23% to 39% according to parent reports.

Fatigue was significantly related with higher scores on the Children's Depression Inventory.

Higher levels of self-reported cognitive fatigue were associated with impaired performance on a problem-solving test, whereas higher levels of parent-reported cognitive fatigue were associated with impairment on tests of verbal learning, processing speed, complex attention and verbal comprehension.

Conclusions: Our data show that fatigue can affect a sizeable proportion of paediatric MS'ers, and confirm the association between fatigue and depressive symptoms in MS.

"Interesting that fatigue is less common in paediatric MS; in adults ~80% of MS'ers will complain of fatigue. I wonder if the perception of fatigue is learnt?"


"Fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression are also a massive problem in paediatric MS."