This can cause a number of symptoms, including back pain. There are many possible causes of back pain in people with MS, such as spasticity, muscle tightness, nerve damage, Lhermitte's sign, muscle issues, and mobility problems.
These pain sensations feel like burning, stabbing, sharp and squeezing sensations. In MS you can experience acute neuropathic pain and chronic neuropathic pain. Acute Neuropathic Pain is sometimes an initial symptom of MS or may be part of an MS relapse.
One classic cause of back pain in multiple sclerosis is a phenomenon called Lhermitte's sign, which refers to a shock-like sensation or a "wave of electricity" that moves rapidly from the back of a person's head down through their spine.
In multiple sclerosis, patches of myelin (the substance that covers most nerve fibers) and underlying nerve fibers in the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord are damaged or destroyed.
Contents. You may have to adapt your daily life if you're diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but with the right care and support many people can lead long, active and healthy lives.
A person with benign MS will have few symptoms or loss of ability after having MS for about 15 years, while most people with MS would be expected to have some degree of disability after that amount of time, particularly if their MS went untreated.
The study found that people with MS lived to be 75.9 years old, on average, compared to 83.4 years old for those without. That 7.5-year difference is similar to what other researchers have found recently.
MS breaks down the layer of myelin and leaves patients with unprotected nerves that do not work as well as they should. As a result, patients may experience a number of uncomfortable symptoms, including spine pain.
MS can damage the nerves that affect your muscles. This can cause acute or paroxysmal pain in the form of spasms. Your arms and legs might shoot out uncontrollably and might have pain like cramping or pulling. Nerve pain can also be chronic in the form of painful or unusual sensations on your skin.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a reliable diagnostic tool and readily identifies MS involvement of both the brain and the spinal cord [9].
MS lesions may appear as either areas of gray, white, or black spots on an MRI, depending on whether they are new or old. The lesions are often oval or frame-shaped.
Those symptoms include loss of vision in an eye, loss of power in an arm or leg or a rising sense of numbness in the legs. Other common symptoms associated with MS include spasms, fatigue, depression, incontinence issues, sexual dysfunction, and walking difficulties.
People should consider the diagnosis of MS if they have one or more of these symptoms: vision loss in one or both eyes. acute paralysis in the legs or along one side of the body. acute numbness and tingling in a limb.
Neurological examination
Your neurologist will look for abnormalities, changes or weakness in your vision, eye movements, hand or leg strength, balance and co-ordination, speech and reflexes. These may show whether your nerves are damaged in a way that might suggest MS.
Blood Tests: Currently, there are no definitive blood tests for diagnosing MS, but they can be used to rule out other conditions that may mimic MS symptoms, including Lyme disease, collagen-vascular diseases, rare hereditary disorders and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Most symptoms develop abruptly, within hours or days. These attacks or relapses of MS typically reach their peak within a few days at most and then resolve slowly over the next several days or weeks so that a typical relapse will be symptomatic for about eight weeks from onset to recovery. Resolution is often complete.
Hair loss is not a symptom of MS, but can be a side effect of various MS treatments, particularly immunosuppressive agents, and other medications such as antidepressants. An MS diagnosis also could be a contributing factor to stress-related hair loss.
Experts usually describe pain caused by MS as musculoskeletal, paroxysmal or chronic neurogenic. Musculoskeletal pain can be due to muscular weakness, spasticity and imbalance. It is most often seen in the hips, legs and arms and particularly when muscles, tendons and ligaments remain immobile for some time.
According to a recent study, a large percentage of Multiple Sclerosis patients have degenerative disc disease. Disc herniations in the cervical or lumbosacral spine can mimic the clinical symptoms of MS and worsen patients' quality of life.
There are three different types of muscle spasms in MS: Flexor spasm — The limb bends up toward the body. Extensor spasm — The limb shoots out, away from the body. Adductor spasm, commonly in the legs and thighs — The limbs come in toward each other.
MS is not directly inherited from parent to child. There's no single gene that causes it. Over 200 genes might affect your chances of getting MS.
While living with multiple sclerosis is a challenge, palliative care can make a big difference. Some palliative care treatments for MS include medications and techniques relieve muscle spasms, calm nerves, ease depression and manage pain. Palliative care teams treat your specific symptoms, whatever they may be.