Language Aspects of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (original) (raw)

2018, Eurasian Journal of Medical Investigation

M S is one of the most common neurodegenerative chronic diseases of CNS which is characterized by a variety of symptoms that result from demyelination and inflammation along axons in multiple regions of the brain and spinal cord. [1, 2] The disease affects women more than twice as much as men. The age of onset ranges between 20 and 40 years. [3] MS etiology is still unknown but it is thought that MS is an autoimmune disease occurring in a genetically susceptible individual triggered by environmental factors. [4-6] Although its course is unpredictable, clinical subgroups can be identified. At clinical onset, more than 85% of MS patients experience the exacerbation symptoms followed by periods of remission in which symptoms can disappear entirely. [3, 5] This kind of form is called relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). The other forms of MS are known as primary progressive MS (PPMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS). Different areas in the brain are influenced by MS. More particularly, it produces lesions throughout the white matter, resulting in a range of neurological deficits which can affect the motor, sensory, cerebellar, cognitive, language functions, etc. Since beginning the identification of language function abnormalities in MS, the language performance evaluation provides a significant contribution to physicians in the diagnosis and follow-up of the MS patients. Language disorders in patients with MS can sometimes be disabling and can manifest through motor speech aspects known as dysarthria, respiratory deficits, voice disorders like dysphonia, and a number of problems such as comprehension and expression. [7-9] Generally in clinical practices, health care professionals evaluate the language aspects with naming and/or fluency tests [10] whereas linguistic theory suggests that each facet of language be considered Objectives: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease among the neurodegenerative disorders of the Central Nervous System (CNS). It affects the motor, sensory, cerebellar, cognitive, language functions, etc. Since beginning the identification of language functions abnormalities in MS, the language performance evaluating provides the significant contribution to physicians in diagnosis and follow-up of the MS patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the language aspects of MS from a linguistic perspective. Methods: The study was conducted with 35 participants diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting MS (RRMS) and 35 controls. All of the study participants were asked about their life. Phonetic, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features of their speech were investigated. Statistical analyses were performed using PASW Statistics for Windows, Version 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: More linguistic errors were displayed by MS patients on every measure compared with the healthy subjects. Conclusion: Speech analysis can provide additional contributions to clinicians evaluating language performance and abnormalities in patients with MS.