Comparison of Cognitive and Linguistic Functions among Multiple Sclerosis Patients and Healthy Controls

Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an incapacitating neurological disease with diverse signs, consisting of difficult or unclear articulation of speech and cognitive and linguistic deficits. The purpose of this study was to compare the cognitive and linguistic functions among MS individuals and healthy controls. Method: The present descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed at Shahid Motahari Clinic of Shiraz, Iran, in 2018-2019. The participants were selected by using a purposeful sampling method from September 2018 to December 2018, at the MS centers of neurology departments. The Persian aphasia test was used as the research instrument to evaluate the cognitive functions in MS patients. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 23 software. Results: The results of the present study revealed that the processing of all subscales, except for transcription, letter and word dictation, and sentence dictation, were significantly different between healthy and unhealthy individuals. Moreover, the results showed that the production of the focused sentence were worse in unhealthy individuals compared to healthy individuals (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that patients with MS were involved in linguistic and cognitive problems. Language and speech therapists who interact with these patients need to be aware of cognitive-linguistic disorders and consider this in their assessment, management, and intervention. Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Cognitive Functions, Persian Aphasia Test