#MSBlog: "Cognitive and physical exercise, or loading, exacerbates cognitive fatigue."
Objective: To investigate whether cognitive fatigue in MSers is a spontaneous phenomenon or whether it can be provoked or exacerbated through cognitive effort and motor exercise.
Methods: 32 MSers with cognitive fatigue according to the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC ≥ 22) performed attention tests (alertness, selective, and divided attention subtests from the TAP test battery for attention performance) twice during rest (baseline), and before and after treadmill training and cognitive load (a standardised battery of neuropsychological tests lasting 2.5 hours). Subjective exhaustion was assessed with a 10-point rating scale.
Results: Tonic alertness turned out to be the most sensitive test and showed significantly increased reaction times after treadmill training and after cognitive load. MSers' subjective assessment of exhaustion (10-point rating scale) and the objective test results were discrepant. In contrast, healthy control subjects (N = 20) did not show any decline of performance in the subtest alertness after cognitive or physical load.
Conclusion: Data favour the concept that fatigue is induced by physical and mental load. Discrepancies between subjective and objective assessment offer therapeutic options. The common notion of a purely "subjective" lack of physical and/or mental energy should be reconsidered.
"This is a poor study because it is very small and did not include inflammatory controls without central nervous system involvement. In other words could the findings be non-specific due to the effects of inflammation rather than MS? People with active rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory syndromes also suffer from significant fatigue.How can we help MSers with fatigue?"
"Step 1: make sure you have good sleep hygiene and are not taking medication that is sedating. Sleep hygiene could be improved by avoiding stimulants or alcohol and not sleeping in the day; treating pain, spasms, restless legs, bladder dysfunction, anxiety and depression. All of these can affect sleep."
"Step 2: treating your energy levels as being a finite resource that need to rationed; i.e. plan your day and your activities so that you don't do too many tiring things in one day."
"Step 3: if you are deconditioned or unfit start a graded aerobic exercise programme; it is counter intuitive but exercise improves energy levels. I usually advise you do this through a physiotherapist."
"Step 4: enrol yourself on a behavioural therapy programme. This typically teaches your ways of changing your life to cope and deal with your fatigue."
"Step 5: speak to your neurologist. He/she may be able to prescribe medications that can help for fatigue. Don't hold your breath there are no licensed therapies for MS-related fatigue. We use drugs off-license with moderate effect and results. The most commonly prescribed drugs are amantadine and modafanil!"
"Please don't forget that fatigue is a normal physiological phenomenon. So it is normal to get tired! Ask me I feel tired most of the time; generation-F! F for fatigue!"