How long ms attacks last

Contact Us. If you or someone close to you has recently been diagnosed, access our MS information and resources. Start Here. Find healthcare providers and community resources to help you live your best life with MS. Its use is limited due to high cost and access issues. It is often considered when someone cannot tolerate glucocorticoids. Plasmapheresis plasma exchange may be considered for severe exacerbations that do not respond adequately to the standard steroid treatment.

Here are a few related topics that may interest you. We use cookies to provide an enhanced experience, to keep our site safe and to deliver specific messaging. By accepting, you consent to the use of all cookies and by declining, only essential cookies will be used to make our website work. More details can be found in our Privacy Policy. The issues may clear up on their own. Some flare-ups cause more severe symptoms, such as extreme weakness, and require treatment.

Your doctor may recommend:. If your flare-up is very severe, your doctor may suggest restorative rehabilitation as you begin to regain strength. This treatment may involve:. Consider your lifestyle and how active it normally is. Things may need to change for you to recover well. Take time off from work if you can, and get assistance around the house if possible. If your recovery looks like it may be lengthy, consider professional home help, such as an MS nurse or assistance from social service organizations.

Flare-ups may bring up emotional issues as well. Anxiety and depression may get worse. Talk with your doctor about whether therapy or similar mental healthcare support is a good idea for you and even for members of your family. Different kinds of approaches may also be useful.

This can include physical and occupational therapy, new medications, and mental health therapy as mentioned above. Your doctor will help determine the right kinds of specialists for you so that your recovery is as easy as possible. A multiple sclerosis diagnosis can turn your world upside down, but it doesn't need to prevent you from doing what you love.

By learning all you can…. After a multiple sclerosis diagnosis, you may be curious about how to talk to others about your condition. What you say to your family and friends may…. Ardra Shephard has lived with multiple sclerosis for 17 years. While she has a handle on managing it now, her first-year post-diagnosis was difficult….

Rania was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at At first, she kept quiet about her diagnosis as she navigated her new way of living. Now, she…. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Medically reviewed by Heidi Moawad, M. Symptoms Flare-ups vs. A flare-up may also be called: an attack a bout an episode an exacerbation a relapse Read on to learn more about MS flare-ups and how to treat and possibly prevent them.

MS flare-up symptoms. This is the least serious form of the disease and is called benign MS. About 1 in people in the UK develop MS. It can affect anyone at any age, although it is rare in young children. It often first develops in people aged between 30 and MS is the most common disabling illness of young adults in the UK. It is more than twice as common in women as in men. MS is not strictly an hereditary disease.

However, you have an increased chance of MS developing if you have a close relative with MS. For example, if your mother, father, brother or sister has MS, then you have about a 2 in chance of developing MS compared with about a 1 in chance in the general population.

MS causes a wide variety of symptoms. Many people experience only a few symptoms and it is very unlikely that you would develop all the symptoms described here if you have MS.

Symptoms of MS are usually unpredictable. You may find that your symptoms worsen gradually with time. More commonly, symptoms come and go at different times. Periods when your symptoms worsen are called relapses. Periods when your symptoms improve or even disappear altogether are called remissions.

Relapses can occur at any time and your symptoms may differ within each relapse. Although relapses usually occur for no apparent reason, various triggers can include infections, exercise and even hot weather. The symptoms that occur during a relapse depend on which part, or parts, of your brain or spinal cord are affected. You may have just one symptom in one part of your body, or several symptoms in different parts of your body. The symptoms occur because the affected nerve fibres stop working properly.

The first symptom of MS for around one in four people with MS is a disturbance of vision. Inflammation swelling of the optic nerve can occur. This is called optic neuritis. This can cause pain behind your eye and also some loss of your vision. This usually only affects one eye. Other eye symptoms may include blurring of your vision or having double vision.

Tremors or spasms of some of your muscles may occur. This is usually due to damage to the nerves that supply these muscles.

Some muscles may shorten contract tightly and can then become stiff and harder to use. This is called spasticity. Extreme tiredness fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of MS.

This tiredness is more than the tiredness you would expect after exercising or exertion. This fatigue can even affect your balance and concentration. There are different treatments for fatigue which are often a combination of self-management strategies, physiotherapy and exercise. You may find that you laugh or cry more easily, even for no reason. Also, many people with MS have symptoms of depression or anxiety at some stage.

It is important to see your doctor and talk about any of these symptoms you may have. Treatment for depression and anxiety is often effective. These are symptoms that may develop later in the course of the disease when some of the above symptoms become permanent. They may include contractures, urine infections, 'thinning' of your bones osteoporosis , muscle wasting and reduced mobility. Almost all the symptoms that can occur with MS can also occur with other diseases. It is often difficult to be sure if a first episode of symptoms a first relapse is due to MS.

For example, you may have an episode of numbness in a leg, or blurring of vision for a few weeks, which then goes. It may have been the first relapse of MS or just a one-off illness that was not MS.

Therefore, a firm diagnosis of MS is often not made until two or more relapses have occurred. So, you may have months, or years, of uncertainty if you have an episode of symptoms and the diagnosis is not clear. In most cases, no test can definitely prove that you have MS after a first episode of symptoms or in the very early stages of the disease. However, some tests are helpful and may indicate that MS is a possible, or probable, cause of the symptoms. A magnetic resonance imaging MRI scan of the brain is a useful test.

This type of scan can detect small areas of inflammation and scarring in your brain which occur in MS. Although very useful in helping to make a diagnosis of MS, MRI scans are not always conclusive, especially in the early stages of the disease. A scan result should always be viewed together with your symptoms and physical examination. Since MRI scans became available, other tests are now done less often. However, they are sometimes done and include:. At present, although there is no cure for MS, certain symptoms of MS can often be eased.

Treatments generally fall into four categories:. These medicines are known as immunomodulatory agents. They include interferon beta, glatiramer, dimethyl fumarate, teriflunomide, alemtuzumab, natalizumab and fingolimod. These medicines do not cure MS and they are not suitable for everyone with MS.