Maternal multiple sclerosis is not a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring.

Background: Childhood neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including specific learning disorders (SLD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are pathogenically linked to familial autoimmunity and maternal immune-mediated diseases during pregnancy.

Objective: We studied maternal MS as a potential risk factor for NDDs occurrence in offspring.

Methods: MS and control mothers were subjected to questionnaires to ascertain NDD diagnosis in their progeny and the occurrence of both autoimmune and neurodevelopment disorders in their families.

Life without quality. Reflections of a female focus group on life, health and kidney disease.

Focus groups are increasingly employed in clinical practice as their flexible structure permits the range and depth of experiences of health service users and chronically ill individuals to be explored and recorded. A focus group workshop on quality of life was held in March 2007 involving a group of patients either awaiting transplantation, following transplantation, or with a family member who had already undergone renal replacement therapy (RRT). After intensive discussion the group produced the following consensus points.