Introduction: Neuropsychological studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) mainly have centred on the study of memory disorder.
Development: The prevalence of memory deficits in MS population is around 40-60%. These deficits could be sum up in an impaired immediate memory, a learning capacity lower than normal controls subjects and a worse long term memory. The results of the reviewed studies about the relationship between performance in memory tasks and clinical variables, show that physical disability and depressive symptoms do not influence this performance. Whilst, years of evolution and, mainly, disease course are related to a worse performance in memory tasks. In structural neuroimaging studies (CT and MRI) it is considered that ventricular dilatation and the total lesion load are predictor variables of MS patients performance in different memory tasks.
Conclusion: This paper reviews several studies relative to amnesic function in subjects suffering from MS, emphasizing the most relevant contributions of the present neuropsychological literature.