A new study shows that it takes too long to recognize multiple sclerosis (MS) and that more money needs to be put into studies right away to make people more aware of the disease.
The "My Diagnosis" study from MS Australia, which came out on World MS Day, showed that it takes almost four years on average from the start of signs to a diagnosis of MS.
The report uses information from the Australian MS Longitudinal Study (AMSLS), which is a survey-based research study that was started in 2002 and gets results from 2500 people living with MS.
The Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania looked at the data and found that how many people were diagnosed with MS has changed over the last 25 years.
In 1996, the first disease-modifying medicines (DMT) for MS were approved. Since then, the average time to diagnosis has gone down from five years and almost four months in 1997–2000 to three years and almost eleven months in 2017–21.
While shorter wait times for diagnoses are good news for most people, there are still a lot of people who have to wait a very long time.
The study lists three important things that need to be done to speed up the MS detection process:
• More money for research to help find ways to find and treat MS earlier;
• Better teaching and knowledge of MS among healthcare workers;
• A better understanding of early MS signs in the community.
Head of Research at MS Australia, Dr. Julia Morahan, says that waiting too long to get a diagnosis of MS is a huge waste of time for people who have the condition and can cause permanent damage and severe mental suffering.
"Time is brain in MS." "We know that the longer someone with MS goes without being diagnosed, the more damage and disability they are likely to have, which can lower their quality of life in the long run," Dr. Morahan said.
If we could correctly identify MS and stop it earlier, it would have a huge impact on people's quality of life and the business.
There are now more than 33,000 people living with MS in Australia. It is the most common acquired chronic nerve disease in young adults. The rate at which the number of people diagnosed with MS has been rising quickly is very worrying.
Associate Professor Vilija Jokubaitis from the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University is sure that advances in faster detection are possible with better resources, the creation of MS biobanks, and more money for MS research.
"More money will be spent on research to help find more accurate biomarkers that are unique to MS." There are very specific imaging biomarkers that can tell the difference between MS and other neurological conditions, according to Associate Professor Jokubaitis.
According to Associate Professor Jokubaitis, focused efforts to help healthcare workers learn more about MS would also help make sure that signs are seen and dealt with more quickly.
Some MS signs are intense pain, trouble walking, extreme tiredness that makes it hard to do anything, partial blindness, and problems with thinking and memory.
The 'My Diagnosis' Report includes both numeric data from the AMSLS and a number of case studies from people who have actually been diagnosed.
Laura Birchall talked about the first signs of her MS and how it affected her while she waited for a diagnosis.
Ms. Birchall thinks she had years of MS symptoms that she didn't think were related to MS because she thought they could have been caused by something else. She advises others in the same situation to talk to their doctor.
The report's results came out on World MS Day, which is a special time for people with MS all over the world to get together and talk about their diagnoses and look for ways to help.
Rohan Greenland, CEO of MS Australia, says that the report's results demand action to shorten the time it takes to diagnose MS.
