Ambulatory Assessment in Neuropsychology Applications in Multiple Sclerosis Research

Abstract

Neuropsychological disorders involve a variety of symptoms that often lead to substantial functional impairments in daily life.Research, assessment, and treatment should include a reference to daily life, considering symptoms, personality, and life circumstances ofthe individual patient. Ambulatory assessment methodology provides progress by avoiding retrospective memory-based bias, increasingecological validity, and by generating individual time series that permit idiographic analysis. Using multiple sclerosis as an example, weillustrate new findings generated by ambulatory assessment studies in the areas of fatigue, stress and cognitive functions, and wedemonstrate future opportunities presented by ambulatory assessment methodology to research and clinical practice with multiplesclerosis patients