The patient's journey: multiple sclerosis

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.885

BMJ 2005;330:885-888 (16 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.885

Clinical review

The patient's journey: multiple sclerosis

Michaela Langgartner, specialist in training, Department of Pediatrics¹, Ingrid Langgartner, technician², Marcus Drlicek, pathologist, Clinical Institute for Neurology¹

¹ Medical University Vienna, Allgemeines Krankenhaus Wien, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Wien, Austria, ² Department of Anesthesiology, Laboratory for Blood Groups, Landeskrankenhaus Kirchdorf, Hausmanningerstraße 8, A-4560 Kirchdorf, Austria

Correspondence to: M Langgartner (Michaela.langgartner@meduniwien.ac.at)

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Wenn einer eine Reise tut, dann kann er was erzählen

When someone goes on a journey there will be lots to tell afterwards,according to the above Austrian saying. This is how we feelabout our description of the journey that is multiple sclerosis.We will not focus on its aetiology, diagnosis, or treatment,but we will concentrate on the experiences of a patient (MD),his wife (IL), and the impressions of one of their children(ML). Looking back on our journey together we will discuss andshare our thoughts. A short description of our experiences attime of diagnosis (box 1) and a personal outlook on the future(box 2) are given here; a more detailed description of the journeyis on bmj.com

The map

The map of the journey is characterised by good and bad news.The "companions" of the patient and their influence are mostimportant. Our review therefore . . . [Full text of this article]