Clock Drawing Test: Screening of Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which primary symptoms emerges in adults between the ages of 20 and 40 years. The prevalence of cognitive impairments in patients with MS is 45-65%, depending on the sensitivity and accuracy of neuropsychological measures. During recent past years, dominant approach to screening of cognitive impairments in patients with MS was to develop brief neuropsychological test collections. In this study, Clock Drawing Test was used for screening of cognitive impairments in patients with relapsing-remitting MS. Methods: In this case-control research done in Isfahan MS association, Iran, 49 women with relapsing-remitting MS and 43 age-, education- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched women without MS were selected by purposeful sampling. Both groups were tested using Clock Drawing Test. Findings: The multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) test indicated meaningful difference between patients and controls in both clock (1:45) free-drawn task and clock (3:00) simple copying task (P < 0.001). In addition, patients had shown more errors in clock drawing, placing numbers and handles, and in showing the asked time. The test had 92% of sensitivity and 89% of specificity. Conclusion: According to the study results, patients with MS have more error in clock drawing which probably is because of clock drawing sensitivity in cognitive impairment screening. Thus, it can be used to screen cognitive impairments in patients with MS.