Editorial - Volume 20, Issue 3 - May 2018

The 2018 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) is being held in Nashville, Tennessee. After New Orleans in 2017, the “Music City” is a particularly fitting location, as one can easily draw a parallel between members of music ensembles performing in harmony to enhance the well-being of their audiences and members of multidisciplinary multiple sclerosis (MS) care teams combining their efforts to enhance the quality of life of their patients. Music itself is an understudied and underutilized tool in the management of MS. I hope that Annual Meeting attendees will be inspired by their stay in Music City to integrate it into their practices.

The CME/CNE article in this issue addresses a common problem faced by clinicians and clinical researchers: the overlap between somatic symptoms of anxiety and depression and symptoms caused by MS (such as fatigue, sleep disturbance, and difficulty concentrating). In a large sample of individuals with MS and a wide range of disability and symptom severity, Jones and colleagues found no bias on somatic symptoms of depression in relation to symptom severity of self-reported disability, but some bias on somatic symptoms of anxiety. This information is very helpful since self-report measures of anxiety and depression are increasingly used in routine care to assess outcomes and patient needs.

Three other articles are focused on mental health issues, of which two evaluate nonpharmacologic interventions. Crescentini and colleagues report positive results from a controlled study of group mindfulness-oriented meditation. Leclaire and colleagues also tested a group intervention, positive psychology, and observed improvement in vitality and depression after the 5-week program. Grech and colleagues found that MS patients' coping styles predict elements of mental health, suggesting another avenue for interventions.

Maintaining or enhancing physical health and physical functioning is also essential to the comprehensive management of MS, regardless of the person's level of disability. Social cognitive theory has been proposed as the basis for developing interventions to promote physical activity in individuals with MS. However, in the cross-sectional study from Uszynski and colleagues, social cognitive theory constructs explained very little of the variance in objectively measured physical activity among inactive adults with MS and a relatively low level of physical disability. Rice and colleagues report good feasibility of a home-based intervention to decrease fall risk in persons with MS using a wheelchair as their primary means of mobility.

Finally, Kariv and Bateman report an interesting case of osmotic demyelination syndrome in a patient with neuromyelitis optica.

Our editorial team hopes to see you at the Annual Meeting, particularly at the IJMSC booth in the exhibit area and at our roundtable breakfast on Saturday, June 2. Enjoy all of the excellent presentations, and tune in your ears to the announcement of the 2017 Herndon Award winner for outstanding IJMSC article. And may the music enhance your quality of life.