Brainpalsy.com - Helping Parents Combat Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a group of chronic disorders impairing control of movement. The disorders appear in the first years of life and generally do not worsen with time.

Description of Cerebral Palsy

These disorders are not caused by problems in the muscles or nerves outside the brain. Instead, faulty development or damage to motor areas in the brain disrupts the brain capacity to adequately control movement and posture.

Cerebral palsy is classified into four broad categories - spastic, athetoid, ataxic, and mixed forms - according to the rate of movement of the disturbance.

1. Spastic cerebral palsy affects 70 to 80 percent of patients. In this way, the muscles are stiffly and permanently contracted. Doctors often describe what kind of spastic cerebral palsy has a patient on the basis that the limbs are affected.

2. Athetoid or dyskinetic cerebral palsy is characterized by an uncontrolled way, slowly, and movements. These abnormal movements often affect the hands, feet, arms or legs, and in some cases, the muscles of the face and tongue, causing grimacing or drooling.

3. Ataxic cerebral palsy is a rare form that affects balance and coordination. People affected can walk unsteadily with a broad-based march, putting his feet unusually far. It also can produce intention tremor.

4. Mixed forms of cerebral palsy exist in the sense that it is common for patients who have more than one form of cerebral palsy. The most common combination includes athetoid spasticity and movement, but other combinations are possible.

Cerebral palsy is not contagious, nor is it usually inherited from one generation to the next. At this point can not be cured, although there is research to improve treatments and prevention methods.

Causes and risk factors for cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is caused by injury, infection or other trauma to the brain when a child is in utero or at birth.

Symptoms of cerebral palsy

Symptoms of cerebral palsy was found along a spectrum of varying severity. A person with cerebral palsy may have difficulty with fine motor tasks like writing or cut with scissors; experience problems with maintaining balance and walking, or be affected by involuntary movements and uncontrollable writhing motion of the hands or drooling.

Symptoms vary from person to person, and may even change over time in the individual. Some people with cerebral palsy are also affected by other medical disorders, including seizures or mental.

Contrary to common belief, however, cerebral palsy does not always cause profound handicap. While a child with severe cerebral palsy might be unable to walk and need extensive, the attention of all life, a child with mild cerebral palsy may be only slightly uncomfortable and do not require special assistance.

The treatment of cerebral palsy

Although cerebral palsy can not be cured, treatment can often improve a child capabilities. In fact, progress due to medical research now means that many patients can enjoy an almost normal life if their neurological symptoms are properly managed.

There is no standard therapy that works for all patients. Some approaches that can be included in a treatment plan are drugs to control seizures and muscle spasms, special braces to compensate for muscle imbalance, surgery, mechanical aids to help overcome these deficiencies, counseling for emotional and psychological needs, and therapy physical, occupational, speech and behavioral therapy.

In general, the treatment begins earlier, the better chance a child has of overcoming developmental disabilities or learning new ways to perform difficult tasks.