The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique challenge to neurologists, patients and healthcare institutions. Shortly after the introduction of the first lockdown policies, multiple sclerosis (MS) experts worked around the clock in order to reorganize MS outpatient and inpatient care and to provide consensus-based evidence for managing MS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We conducted an online survey via Google forms to evaluate clinical management disruption and physical and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in MS patients followed at the Neurology Unit of Cascais Hospital. After approval from the Hospital’s ethics committee, an online link was sent to the mailing list of our MS patients. A total of 62 answers was obtained (with a response rate of 61.4%), from the 10th August to the 7th September 2020. Our sample was comprised of 66.1% female and 33.9% male participants, with a mean age of 44 years. Most participants had relapsing/remitting MS (16.1%), followed by primary and secondary progressive MS (16.1%) and clinically isolated syndromes (3.2%).

Letter to the Editor available here.