Paroxysmal symptoms (that come and go) & MS

[shoshin]

I read this interesting article on paroxysmal symptoms, which are described as:

"temporary neurological disturbances, such as muscle spasms (called tonic spasms), numbness and tingling sensations (called paresthesias), slurred speech, imbalance (called ataxia), and so forth. They may mimic symptoms of MS attacks, but the difference is that they are fleeting, from several seconds up to 2 minutes, rather than persistent over several days to weeks as described in MS attacks ... In addition to their shortness in length, paroxysmal symptoms occur over and over again from a few times a day to a few times an hour."

The article also talks a bit about exacerbations (relapses) and pseudoexacerbations.

http://www.unitedspinal.org/publications/msqr/2008/11/18/paroxysmal-symptoms-of-multiple-sclerosis-they-come-and-they-go/

tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/5c3pbj

sho

[shoshin]

I don't think they're trying to say that the paroxysmal symptoms aren't from MS, but rather to explain how they're different from real and pseudo exacerbations/relapses. Other things can cause these kinds of symptoms, but I don't know exactly what off the top of my head. Other neurological conditions anyway.

As far as I can make out, the article suggests that these come-and-go symptoms in MS are probably caused by ectopic transmission (overexcitable axons where areas of demyelination start transmitting a signal for no apparent reason) and ephaptic transmission (which seem to to mean that these same overexcitable axons fire because a nearby neuron fires even though they're not supposed to be influenced that way).

Hope this helps.

sho

[mgriff06]

Do they know why these "neurological disturbances" come and go if not due to MS?

[doni54]

Thanks for the sites.....really good info.

[Wobbly]

question for you...when you say repeatedly through the day... does that mean "continuous" or here then gone and then back again so on so on through the day or more...?  

I know...I'm confused today

wobbly
undx

[Quixotic1]

Yes!  Great source.  When we talk about new and fleeting symptoms making up a relapse, we always try to specify that these paroxysmal events should occur repeatedly through the day.  If they only occur once they are less likely to be from MS and reflect physical damage to the nerves.

That is a great website and I agree that both ACTIO, the Unitedspinal.org newletter and the MS Quarterly Report are outstanding sources of information.  The first deals with both spinal cord injury, MS and other causes of spinal cord damage.  The MSQR deals just with MS.

Q

[jensequitur]

It's in the MSQR newsletter, which you can subscribe to through the website.  I thought it was interesting too!  They also have clinical trial news, and they give you info on how to apply for that.