Past Podcast Episodes

Experts estimate that depression affects about 50% of the people diagnosed with MS.  And, left unchecked, depression can take your vibrant, colorful world and re-draw it in somber shades of gray.

If there's good news about depression, it's that it can be treated.  In this special Vacation Edition of RealTalk MS, we're going to revisit a conversation that I had last November with Dr. Amy Sullivan, Director of Behavioral Medicine, Research and Training at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis at the Cleveland Clinic.  Dr. Sullivan shares some important insights about living with MS and depression…and what to do about it if you are.

At the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers Annual Meeting, I learned about the Pediatric MS Alliance from Jill Blackburn. I met Dr. Miriam Franco and learned about the app that she's developed and you'll want to download. And I sat down with Dr. Rosalind Kalb and MS Activist Marques Jones to learn about MS Path 2 Care – a new set of educational modules designed to empower people living with MS to be active participants in their own care & treatment.

We're also talking about a study that demonstrates that treatment with Ocrevus may improve cognitive ability in MS patients who are at risk of disease progression. We'll discuss research that suggests that MS patients who are living with depression and fatigue are less likely to adhere to their disease-modifying therapy as prescribed by their neurologist. And I'll tell you how they lowered the cost of MS prescription medications in the U.K.