What Kinds of MS Exist?

To most physicians dealing with MS and many patients, this illness seems to be a family of closely related disorders. To begin with, a doctor’s clinical diagnosis of MS is based on the recognition of symptoms that recur (relapse). The relapsing nature of the disease is unique to MS.

Recognition of symptoms that are typically associated with MS makes a neurologist’s diagnosis easier. By consensus, MS is usually divided into four different types for the purposes of study: (1) relapsing-remitting MS, (2) secondary progressive MS, (3) primary progressive MS, and (4) relapsing progressive. This does not mean that they have different causes.