Everyday Cognitive Failure in Sarcoidosis: The Prevalence and the Effect of Anti-TNF- Treatment

Background: Cognitive symptoms, such as concentration problems, are frequently recorded by sarcoidosis patients. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of perceived everyday cognitive failure in sarcoidosis patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, the effect of treatment on cognitive functioning was examined. Methods: The study included 343 sarcoidosis patients (44.6% females; age 49.3 8 11.0 years). They completed the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) and Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) at baseline and the 6-month follow-up to evaluate the effect of treatment on cognitive functioning. The control group consisted of 343 ageand sex-matched healthy controls. Results: The mean CFQ score was significantly higher in sarcoidosis patients (37.3 8 16.1) compared with the controls (31.3 8 10.1; p ! 0.0001). A high CFQ sore ( 6 43) was found in 35.0% of the patients and only 14.3% of the controls. No relation with disease severity and duration, or disease loReceived: January 11, 2010 Accepted after revision: February 24, 2010 Published online: April 29, 2010 Prof. Dr. M. Drent Department of Respiratory Medicine, ild care center Maastricht University Medical Center, POB 5800 NL–6202 AZ Maastricht (The Netherlands) Tel. +31 43 387 6497, Fax +31 43 387 4718, E-Mail m.drent @ mumc.nl © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel 0025–7931/10/0803–0212$26.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/res D ow nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 11 /1 9/ 20 17 1 0: 02 :4 3 A M