Introduction

In many cases, living with MS leads family members to be even more appreciative and attentive to each other but families are not always able to maintain a positive adjustment to MS – sometimes the relationship between a person with MS and their family caregiver can deteriorate so that the relationship becomes abusive.

This can happen for any number of reasons including

• The physical or emotional stress
  of the caregiver,
• The difficulty of the person with
  MS to adjust to increasing disability
• Difficulties that the spouse or
  partner caregiver may have in managing both the intimate aspects of their
  relationship and caregiving needs ( which may include bowel and bladder
  management)
• Dealing with cognitive
  dysfunction.- it can be very frustrating to the caregiver when a seemingly
  normal adult doesn’t seem to know what’s going on in their life

Caregiver stress is an internal experience that can result from the physical or emotional burden of caregiving. When a caregiver
responds to that stress and isolation by inflicting harm on the person with MS they care for, it becomes abuse.

Different types of abuse

Abuse can be split into a number
of different types:

• Adult physical abuse – substantial physical injury
  experienced by an adult that result from cruel and inhumane treatment or an
  intentionally harmful act committed by any person.
• Sexual abuse – any form of forced sex or sexual
  degradation. This includes forcing an individual to participate in or observe
  sexual behaviours.
• Emotional abuse – this is the most difficult form
  of abuse to concretely define or detect  but it is generally considered the most
  harmful because of the long-term effects
• Neglect – failure of a
  responsible person to provide a minimal
  level of care includes health, nutrition, shelter, supervision, affection or
  attention.
• Exploitation and theft – misappropriation of money or
  property, theft, and coercion to sign legal documents that benefit the
  offender.

In a study of people with MS at the Mellen MS Center, Dr Jack Conomy and colleagues concluded that “. . . domestic violence among persons with MS appears common [and] . . . no age, race, gender, or socioeconomic group of people with MS is immune from personal violence.”

No one living with MS is immune to the possibility of abuse. There is little doubt that people with MS are victims of neglect or
violence, but the extent is not clearly known. We believe that the pattern of abuse in families with a history of domestic violence (pre-dating the MS diagnosis) will continue and may escalate as the disease worsens. Just as importantly, families with no previous history of domestic violence may find themselves in abusive relationships as a result of the stresses of living with
MS.

When family, friends or health care professionals are concerned about the potential for abuse or neglect in a family living with MS,
the first step is to acknowledge concern. Try empathising with the caregiver by saying something such as “Everyone has a limit as to how much stress and responsibility they can take – how close do you think you are to your limit?”,

Since the laws around reporting neglect and abuse differ between countries, it is important that family members and health care
professionals understand their responsibilities and know the relevant authorities to contact if they have any concerns.

It is well known that epilepsy occurs more frequently in people with MS than in the general population. (Mean prevalence in MS 2.3% and in general population ranges between 0.27 and 1.7%). Seizures have often been the only or first manifestation of MS.

In this study RRMS patients with epilepsy were found to have a higher number of cortical lesions and a decreased cortical thickness than those without epilepsy. Epilepsy in this subgroup seems to be consequence of rapidly
evolving cortical pathology – both in terms of number of lesions and cortical atrophy.  This subgroup of patients was also seen to have a higher degree of cognitive impairment and more physical disability.

This study shows that this subgroup of RRMS patients constitutes a group of MS patients whose cortical pathology needs further investigation.

This may be frustrating to hear beacuse it says lets look at it but hasn’t done it yet. Clearly these things need to have this initial study first to find out if there’s anything worth investigating and now that there is they neeed to find funding to take it further.

Why not visit A Voice For MS Facebook Page

A study has reported that Viagra given to mice with the animal model of MS showed  staggering results in 50% of the animals.

Daily treatment with Sildenafil (Viagra) rapidy reduced MS-like symptoms so that after 8 days there was an almost complete recovery.

For the first time it was shown how the drug reduced the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the white mattter of the spinal chord. This threrfore reduced the damage to the axons making myelin repair easier for the myelin-making cells.

Recent studies had already pointed to the fact that as well as vasodilation this drug seems to have neroprotective actions so can be used in MS, stroke and Alzheimers.

Researcher are confident that clinical trails in humas will soon be carried out.

Already a study , in the USA , has shown that bloodflow to the brain can be increased in both men and women who have MS using Viagra.

Have you used Viagra and did you find any change in your MS symptoms

Why not visit A Voice For MS Facebook Page

Please let me know if this makes life easier or if you would like any other changes.

Thanks

Kath

Some people with MS may experience a progression of their
symptoms over time. However, the exact mechanisms underlying this progression are not fully understood and it is difficult to predict whose symptoms will worsen and whose will remain stable. The authors of tis report studied a group
of people with MS, with and without clinical signs of motor dysfunction, and agroup of healthy controls, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

TMS is a physiological test which measures the damage of
motor pathways of the central nervous system by measuring the speed of nerve
fibre conduction and other related parameters. They found that people with MS had abnormal results in the TMS compared to the controls. The authors also found that people with a higher level of disability had more severe TMS abnormalities. The results demonstrate that TMS may be a useful tool in measuring progression in MS and better understanding the underlying processes responsible for disability in MS.

How do they do that !

http://youtu.be/-Ft0RjJmTSo