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Treatment Strategies in Multiple Sclerosis

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Handbook of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the leading causes of disability among young adults and presents a major health burden in the USA and other Western countries. Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for MS are primarily aimed at reducing relapse rate and disability accumulation over time, and have been shown to significantly decrease disease activity clinically as well as radiographically on MRI. In the past several years, the number of therapies for this debilitating disease has greatly increased, offering the ability to tailor treatment plans based on severity of disease, personal preference, risk tolerance, and comorbidities. However, new treatments also come with new safety concerns and monitoring requirements with which physicians must familiarize themselves. This chapter will review the data regarding the treatment options currently available. Finally, while the armamentarium of treatment options for relapsing forms of MS has expanded over the past few years, no currently available therapy has been efficacious in the treatment of (primary or secondary) progressive MS without relapses, and emerging treatment strategies are aimed at addressing this issue (see Chap. 5).

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Harel, A., Katz-Sand, I. (2017). Treatment Strategies in Multiple Sclerosis. In: Miller, A. (eds) Handbook of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Adis, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40628-2_4

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