The ability to assess risk may decline as multiple sclerosis disease status progresses over time, as determined by a recent study from University of Alberta in Canada. Principal investigator Esther Fujiwara, PhD, and lead author of the study, Ashley Radomski, used thegame of dice task (GDT) to challenge patients with multiple sclerosis to make risk assessments. Individuals with more severe disease were less able to make decisions when faced with risky situations.
“What we found in our study is that those patients who have increased disease severity, as indicated by a particular subtype of multiple sclerosis or by greater structural changes in the brain, did have greater decision-making disabilities than patients who were considered less severe,” said Radomski in a news release from University of Alberta. The changes seemed to be related to brain atrophy.
Radomski and Dr. Fujiwara were motivated to conduct the study to understand how multiple sclerosis may affect decisions that patients must make in their daily lives. “People with multiple sclerosis are faced with many complex decisions on a regular basis—for example, choices about which medications to take or not take, what short- or long-term effects are desirable or undesirable, which side-effects seem acceptable or unacceptable, and so on,” explained Dr. Fujiwara.
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