[Brief Neuropsychological Battery for multiple sclerosis. Normative data stratified by age and educational level].

INTRODUCTION: Interpretation of the performance on cognitive tests for neuropsychological assessment in multiple sclerosis (MS) differs according to the educational level of the examinee.

AIMS: To provide normative data for the Brief Neuropsychological Battery (BNB) for MS stratified by age and education, as well as to demonstrate the utility of the battery for discriminating between healthy controls and patients with MS.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data from 701 healthy volunteers from the original normative sample were stratified by age and education using regression analyses of standard scores. Performance of the healthy control group was compared to a group of 112 patients with MS.

RESULTS: Significant differences on the BNB were found between groups, mainly in tasks of information processing speed, working memory and verbal memory. Age and sex variables did not have a significant effect on the results.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that the BNB for MS is sensitive for identifying cognitive impairments in MS, specifically in tasks measuring working memory.