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Multiple Sclerosis
Background
Multiple sclerosis is the most common potentially disabling disease of the central nervous system affecting young adults. The lifetime risk is about 1 in 500 in the UK and there is a slight excess risk in females (it affects three times more females than males).
MS is usually perceived as a disorder of adulthood but children and adolescents can be affected. Although childhood and adolescent onset is not common, it is thought that 2.7 to 4.4 per cent of people with MS have onset before the age of 16. Of this figure, 0.2 to 1.6 per cent are affected before the age of ten years. The relapsing remitting form of MS is more common in those having childhood onset. Common features in childhood onset MS are sensory problems, movement difficulties such as poor coordination and tremor and visual problems.
