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The following is a summary of “Effects of COVID-19 Infection on Symptom Severity and Disability in Multiple Sclerosis,” published in the December 2024 issue of Neurology by Salter et al.  

Infections, including COVID-19, can affect the course of multiple sclerosis (MS), with previous studies reporting inconsistent results.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine the impact of COVID-19 infection on symptom severity and disability in people with MS (PwMS).  

They used a controlled interrupted time series (ITS) design with data from the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry. Participants completed at least 3 surveys before and after the index survey, COVID-19 infection was self-reported and confirmed through testing. Symptom severity was assessed using the SymptoMScreen (SMSS) tool, and disability was measured with the Patient Determined Disease Steps (PDDS) scale. Segmented regression was used to compare changes in outcomes between cohorts before and after COVID-19 infection.  

The results showed that of the 4,787 participants, 2,106 (44.0%) reported having had COVID-19. In the COVID-19 cohort, 796 individuals had at least 3 surveys before and after infection, while the uninfected cohort had 1,534 participants (32.0%). The SMSS score increased slightly over time in both cohorts. This change was similar before (0.005, 95% CI −0.025 to 0.035) and after infection (−0.0002, 95% CI −0.014 to 0.014). The immediate effect of COVID-19 on the SMSS score was minimal (0.41, 95% CI −0.13 to 0.94), and the results were similar for disability.  

They concluded that COVID-19 infection did not significantly impact symptom severity or disability in PwMS over a median follow-up of 18 months.  

Source: neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000210149