Disease Severity of MS Families Not the Same

If more than one member of a family has multiple sclerosis, their ages at disease onset may be similar, but not their disease severity, says a British study.

We’ve known for some time that family influence plays a role in whether you are susceptible to MS, but it has not been clear whether your family influence affects the course of the disease, said lead study author Alastair Compston of the University of Cambridge Clinical School.

Researchers examined data on 2,310 individuals from more than 1,000 families in which at least two members had MS. They examined age at onset, disability, disease severity and other features of the disease.

The researchers found that age at onset of the disease was similar among family members, whether comparing parents to children or siblings with each other. They also found that siblings tended to have the same pattern of disease progression, while there was no correlation between the pattern in parents and children.

The study also showed there was no correlation between the severity of the disease in one family member and severity in another member, whether siblings or parent and child, according to the study published in Neurology.