Health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) is a crucial sign of health in MS patients since MS symptoms have an impact on many aspects of everyday living. Physicians may choose to concentrate on physical or cognitive changes in MS patients since these assessments involve physician- or psychologist-administered examinations rather than patient self-reporting. However, there are several approved techniques available for evaluating HR-QOL in clinical studies. These techniques have been used in several studies to evaluate how common disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), such as interferon and glatiramer acetate, affect MS patients' HR-QOL. Numerous of these studies discovered that DMTs enhanced different aspects of patients' HR-QOL; however, the results were difficult to interpret due to issues with research design, such as small patient populations or a lack of placebo control for comparison. The most recent DMT, natalizumab, was found to significantly enhance HR-QOL in individuals with relapse MS in two sizable, randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Furthermore, natalizumab's effects on HR-QOL were clear regardless of the characteristics of the disease. The natalizumab studies convincingly show that HR-QOL assessments may be pertinent in the context of clinical trials and support the idea that patient-reported outcomes, including HR-QOL measures, should be used in clinical trials to more thoroughly evaluate treatment efficacy.
