Neuropsychological rehabilitation programmes aim to tackle cognitive difficulties directly and target everyday situations to enhance people’s cognitive functioning, independence, and psychological wellbeing.
Many people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) will experience some form of difficulty with cognition.
‘Cognition’ describes the way we:
- Concentrate
- Focus, maintain and divide attention
- Do more than one thing at a time (multi-task)
- Learn and remember new things
- Reason and solve problems
- Plan, carry out and monitor our own activities
- Understand and use language
- Recognise objects, compile things together and judge distances
- Many people with MS will experience some form of difficulty with cognition.
Neuropsychological rehabilitation is one form of treatment that could be offered to help people with MS manage these problems better. Neuropsychological rehabilitation is a holistic programme that includes ‘cognitive rehabilitation’ (which addresses specific cognitive problems) and other psychological issues (such as stress, which may have an impact on cognition).
NHS Neuropsychological rehabilitation programmes are often delivered by psychologists or occupational therapists in either a group setting or on a one-to-one basis.
Why is neuropsychological rehabilitation important?
About 70% of all people with MS will have some form of difficulty at some time with elements of thinking, memory, attention span or concentration.
Problems with memory and thinking can affect social and emotional functioning in people with MS, and can interfere with a person’s daily life by affecting their ability to care for themselves, complete tasks, keep appointments or interact with people. The problems can range from mild to severe.
The kind of problems that are more common in MS include difficulties with concentrating, being unable to find the right word (‘it's on the tip of my tongue’) and short term memory problems. Neuropsychological rehabilitation helps people to re-learn the cognitive skills that may have been lost over time, and also helps people cope better with their cognitive problems.
At present, most people who have MS do not routinely receive any further therapy after they leave hospital to help with their cognitive problems.
