Psychometric properties of the Frontal Assessment Battery in multiple sclerosis

• Autor(a) principal: Henriques, Sandra
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Espirito-Santo, Helena, Cunha, Luís, Lemos, Laura, Daniel, Fernanda
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.31211/rpics.2019.5.2.159
• topic: Executive functioning; Frontal Assessment Battery; Multiple sclerosis; Esclerose múltipla; Frontal Assessment Battery; Funcionamento executivo

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease that can involve cognitive and executive changes. Executive changes, mostly related to the frontal lobe, could be underdiagnosed, since the instruments used in MS are extensive and complex, and their results may be compromised by the levels of fatigue that may potentially stem from them. The frontal assessment battery here presented (FAB), can be applied in a fast and easy way, in order to assess frontal lobe functions.  Aim: Exploring the psychometric properties of the FAB in a Portuguese sample of MS patients. Method: A sample of 68 MS patients and a control sample (n= 81 individuals with no diagnosed neurological disease) were assessed with FAB, Montreal Cognitive Assessment Subscale/MoCA-E, and Phonetic Verbal Fluency Test/PVFT. Twenty-nine patients were reassessed with the FAB four-eight weeks after.  Results: In the MS sample, internal consistency was adequate, and temporal stability was moderate to high in the Similarities, Lexical Fluency, Luria’s Motor Sequences, and Go-No-Go subscales. The FAB results correlated highly with those obtained with both MoCA-E and PVFT, thus assuring adequate convergent validity, and its test-retest temporal stability was adequate. Lexical FluencyandLuria’s Motor Sequencessubscales scores were significantly lower in MS patients compared with normal controls (p < .05). In MS, FAB discriminated between schooling levels (p< .001), and Luria’s Motor Sequences differentiated between MS patterns (p < .05). Conclusions: The FAB presents adequate psychometric properties to assess frontal lobe functions in patients with MS, and it should thus be part of the neuropsychological assessment to help on the correct therapeutic referral. Furthermore, the Lexical Fluencysubscale seems important in the assessment of these patients, being potentially a valid measure for MS frontal dysfunction level I screening.