Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the nervous system, which can typically take a large number of (very) different courses. The causes of the disease are not known to date. Today, however, there is a great variety of medications that make it possible for the progression of the disease to be slowed down.
Research
That progress made in the development of medication is undoubtedly giving rise to hopes, and can be regarded as a step towards combating the disease. It is particularly the new possibilities of treatment, however, that are making current and future MS research more difficult. It is hardly possible any more for clinical trials on newly-developed preparations to be carried out. For ethical reasons, administering placebo pills to MS patients for research purposes can no longer be justified. That, however, has resulted in a lack of the control groups that are indispensable for drug trials to be conducted.