How many general neurologists still treat MS?

[GuillainMollaret]

I'm an attending who does exclusively outpatient in a community setting, doing a mix of subspecialty neurology (not MS) and general neurology. My group does not have an MS specialist and the culture is to refer out all of our newly diagnosed MS patients to the local university MS center.

Genuinely curious as to how many general neurologists still treat MS and their comfort level with infusion based and newer oral therapies

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[deathmerchant]

I'm an attending who does exclusively outpatient in a community setting, doing a mix of subspecialty neurology (not MS) and general neurology. My group does not have an MS specialist and the culture is to refer out all of our newly diagnosed MS patients to the local university MS center.

Genuinely curious as to how many general neurologists still treat MS and their comfort level with infusion based and newer oral therapies

I treat MS (not fellowship trained in MS). But I don't have an infusion center, so I just do mild-moderate new onset MS or some patients with long standing MS who have plateaued and treat secondary symptoms. Ill use interferons/copaxone/oral DMDs. If someone is not being controlled despite that, I might send them to a tertiary center, mainly because of lack of an infusion center and since I only work 7on-7off and am not available on off days.

 

[Neurogeneral]

I am a general neurologist. I only treat MS with the typical injectables and oral meds. If that fails, I typically refer the patient out if possible for treatment with the more aggressive chemotherapy-like drugs that mostly require infusions. Things may change in the future though.

 

[hiiiiiiiiiii]

We have 1-2 general neurologists in our system who treat run-of-the-mill MS. But there are also 2 neurologists in the group who are fellowship trained in MS and neuroimmunology so if the cases get too complicated or they need newer treatments they just get referred and bumped up to one of the fellowship trained ones