MS Active Source

MS The Disease

• Introduction
• History of MS
• What is MS?
• Who gets MS?
• Symptoms of MS
• Course of the disease
• Diagnosis
• Treatment of MS

Symptoms of MS

MS is associated with many different symptoms and symptoms can vary widely between patients. This reflects the fact that the symptoms experienced result from the particular neurons that are damaged and this varies widely between individuals.

In the early stages of disease, symptoms are generally mild, transient, unspecific and may not require medical treatment. Indeed, many patients have MS and the associated symptoms for several years before they are definitively diagnosed. However, as the disease progresses, symptoms tend to become more severe and prolonged.

Typical first symptoms include:

• changes in sensations in arms, legs or face,
• complete or partial loss of vision or double vision,
• weakness,
• unsteadiness when walking,
  
• problems with balance.

Typical symptoms experienced throughout the course of MS include:

• Blurred vision or pain behind the eye. Known as optic neuritis, this results from inflammation of the optic nerve.
• Muscle weakness in arms and legs, due to damage to the neurons controlling muscle movement. Patients may need assistance with walking such as a cane or wheelchair.
• Altered sense of touch, numbness or tingling.
• Pain, e.g. burning pain in arms and legs, pain in the face (trigeminal neuralgia).
• Spasticity, i.e. stiffness or tightness usually in the arms and legs which can be painful.
• Difficulties with the bladder – unable to control the urge to urinate or unable to completely empty the bladder.
• Difficulties with the bowels, e.g. constipation or incontinence.
• Difficulties with having sex, e.g. erectile dysfunction or lack of sex drive.
• Difficulties with balance and co-ordination, e.g. lose of balance when walking or difficulty with writing.
• Fatigue/extreme tiredness.
• Cognitive problems, e.g. loss of memory, difficulty concentrating.
• Depression, due to the changes in the brain resulting from MS or as a reaction to having MS and coping with the symptoms. 

Please click here for our eFeature invisible symptoms, which offers further information, support and links.

The symptoms associated with an attack or exacerbation can be treated with intravenously administered corticosteroids as discussed in Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis Relapses and Exacerbations. These drugs suppress inflammation and therefore shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce longer-term effects. Other treatments are also available which can treat specific symptoms: e.g. tizantidine and baclofen for severe spasticity; tolterodine for bladder problems; modafinil for fatigue; sidenafil for sexual problems; and gabapentin for painful symptoms (ref m14).

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