Verbal Fluencies and Fampridine Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis

Background/Aims: Fampridine is sometimes reported to improve cognition and especially the information-processing speed. Motor improvement might be a confounding factor. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fampridine on verbal fluencies in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: Fifty MS patients were included in a prospective monocentric open label trial with a mean Expanded Disability Status Scale of 5.3 +/- 1.1. Assessments of verbal phonological and semantic fluencies were repeated twice (within 1 week) before fampridine treatment and twice after fampridine treatment in order to have the maximal practice effect. Gait velocity and fatigue (visual analogical scale) were also assessed. Distribution into gait responders, gait non-responders, fluency responders and fluency non-responders, was described. Results: Verbal fluencies were significantly higher after fampridine treatment. No correlation was observed between phonological fluency improvement and semantic fluency improvement. Gait responders and gait non- responders did not present significant differences in verbal fluency performance and fatigue score. No correlation between gait velocity improvement and fatigue improvement compared with verbal fluency improvement was observed. Conclusion: Our results suggest that fampridine could have a selective procognitive effect on phonological fluency in MS, even in the gait non-responder patients. (C) 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel