Ambulatory assessment in neuropsychology: applications in multiple sclerosis research

Neuropsychological disorders involve a variety of symptoms that often lead to substantial functional impairments in daily life. Research, assessment, and treatment should include a reference to daily life, considering symptoms, personality, and life circumstances of the individual patient. Ambulatory assessment methodology provides progress by avoiding retrospective memory-based bias, increasing ecological validity, and by generating individual time series that permit idiographic analysis. Using multiple sclerosis as an example, we illustrate new findings generated by ambulatory assessment studies in the areas of fatigue, stress and cognitive functions, and we demonstrate future opportunities presented by ambulatory assessment methodology to research and clinical practice with multiple sclerosis patients.