Validation of the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) in a Colombian Population

•The BICAMS Colombia is useful to monitor patient cognitive evolution.•Cognitive impairment was found in 50% of the Colombian MS sample.•Evidences of criterion validity were found for SDMT and BVMT-R, but not for PAMCL.•Test-retest reliability was adequate for all three tests included in the BICAMS. Background: Cognitive impairment has been recognized as an important factor in multiple sclerosis (MS) in the past few years. One brief, reliable and valid tool to assess cognition in MS is the BICAMS, which encompasses the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT II), and the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test - Revised (BVMT-R). Continuing with the international initiative to validate the BICAMS in different countries, here we present the results obtained from the efforts in validating such test in the Colombian population. Method: 100 healthy controls and 50 MS patients participated in the study, group matched for age, education and gender. Subjects completed all three tests of the BICAMS. Instead of the CVLT-II, the Colombian validated form PAMCL (Prueba de Aprendizaje y Memoria con Codificación Libre) was used. Test-retest measures were obtained for 16 patients in order to test for reliability. Results: Evidence of criterion validity was obtained, MS group performing significantly worse than HC group in all three tests (SDMT: p= .001, d= 0.59; PAMCL: p= .03, d= 0.38; BVMT-R: p