Multiple sclerosis neuropsychological questionnaire (MSNQ) is a brief questionnaire useful for screening patient’s and informant’s self-perception of cognitive dysfunctions in daily life activities. This study aims to evaluate the MSNQ validity in Huntington’s disease (HD) mutation carriers and to correlate MSNQ scores with neurological, cognitive, and behavioral variables.
The study is conducted on a sample of 107 patiens from presymptomatic to the middle stage of HD. Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS), an internationally standardized and validated scale, is used to evaluate motor, functional cognitive, and behavioral domains.
The results show that in HD patients, MSNQ has a unidimensional factor structure. Correlational analyses indicates a good correlation between the MSNQ-patient version (MSNQ-p) and clinical variables, specifically with cognitive dysfunction and behavioral alterations.
The present study demonstrates the validity and adaptability of MSNQ in the HD population proposing it as a cognitive tool during routine clinical follow-ups, although further research is needed to determine an optimal cut-off score for this measure. Read the full article here.