NEUROBEHAVIORAL PERFORMANCE IN MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITIES

Individuals with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) frequently repo rt difficulties in attention/concentration, memory, and accuracy and s peed of problem solving. We evaluated neurobehavioral functioning in 3 5 chemically exposed patients referred to our Occupational and Environ mental Neurology Clinic, Of these 35 patients, 17 presented with sympt oms of MCS and 16 patients reported no symptoms of MCS, In addition, w e used a group of 126 healthy controls for comparison. The performance of the RIGS group was not significantly different from that of the co ntrol group on tests of verbal learning and memory, executive function ing, and psychomotor functioning. The MCS group performed below the co ntrol group on a test of visual learning and memory, but this performa nce was similar to the group with chemical exposure and no MCS. Theref ore, performance on objective neurobehavioral tests did not confirm th e most frequently reported subjective complaints of patients with MCS. These results suggest that patients with symptoms of MCS do not have compromised central nervous system functioning. (C) 1996 Academic Pres s, Inc.