The risk of reaching multiple sclerosis (MS) disability milestones has dropped significantly in the past decade, researchers from Sweden report.

“As many clinicians have an impression that MS patients have done better in recent years, and since most of us believe that MS disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) have an important effect beyond the brief two years of clinical trials, our findings are maybe [not] surprising,” said Dr Jan Hillert, from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

“But I’m personally surprised at the rate by which this decrease happens, 3-7% per diagnosis for the various disability milestones per year.”

MS disability, most commonly measured by the Extended Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, is a key target for an increasing range of therapies. Some studies have reported a trend of increasing time to disability milestones, whereas others have found no evidence of shifting trajectory of disability over time.