The effect of high doses of methylprednisolone on cognitive tests (P300-P50) in patients, have multiple sclerosis, are at the early stages of treatment.

8- SUMMARYMultiple Sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of theCentral Nervous System. Although its etiology remains unknown, it is believed thatenviromental factors play a considerable role within the backround of the geneticfactors. MS is characterized by exacerbations and remissions. The lesions can cause avariety of signs and symptoms depending on their location in CNS, frequntly includingmotor, sensory, cerebellar, visual, mental and sfincter problems. Cognitive impairmentsare common; especially attention, memory and data processing speed are effected. Alsothe high doses of methylprednisolone used during the MS acute attack has positive andnegative effcets. Cognitive functions are best evaluated by P300 Event Related Potential(ERP).Sensory gating is the brain?s ability of fitlering irrelevant stimuli, protectingitself against stimuli chaos during information developing process. It is best evaluatedby P50 ERP.Based on the question if 1000 mg/day IV methylprednisolone for 5 days has aneffect on cognitive process, the objective of this study was evaluating the effect of highdoses of methylprednisolone on cognitive functions by P300&P50 ERP.The study was performed in the Neurophysiology Laboratory of the departmentof Neurology at İnönü University between November 2006 - February 2007. Thetreatment group consisted of 20 patients having Relapsing Remitting MS. P300&P50recordings were performed 1 day before and 2 day after the 5 days IVmethylprednisolone treatment. No difference was demonstrated before and after P300recordings. P50 supression decrease was observed after the treatment but theesefindings are not statistically significant.35In this study, we demonstrated that high doses of steroids have no effect oncognitive functions at acute phase.36