Children who have cerebral palsy cannot always count on having a “normal” life in many regards. The first thing they always face as a challenge is mobility. Even if they have excellent mobility most of the time, many cerebral palsy sufferers suffer from debilitating muscle spasms from time to time. People with cerebral palsy can live rich, fulfilling lives. Growing up, however, can be difficult for several reasons.
One of the risks that anybody with mobility impairments has is becoming isolated. It’s simply harder to get around if you have mobility impairment. If your child requires a wheelchair to get around but enjoys spending time with their friends, it’s easy to see how the mobility impairment could become a problem at a certain point. When your child’s friends all start getting driver’s licenses, they may not be able to take your child out with them because of not having room to stash the wheelchair in transit. This is why mobility vans are oftentimes among the first purchases when people have a child with cerebral palsy.
In some cases, people with cerebral palsy need some extra assistance in school. Sometimes, people with cerebral palsy attend normal classes like everyone else. There are quite a few people with cerebral palsy who do very well at school but who have difficulty with one subject or another. You may have to accommodate this by paying for tutors or extra classes. This can be somewhat isolating, as well.
The most severe cases of cerebral palsy are very debilitating. It may be almost impossible for your child to do anything on their own. For people with cerebral palsy, the most difficult tasks are oftentimes those that require the most developed muscle coordination. For example, opening a door can be exceptionally difficult if you can’t get your arms to stop shaking every time you try to grasp the knob. This is an example of what quite a few cerebral palsy sufferers have to deal with in terms of negotiating everyday life.
Around half of all children with cerebral palsy also have epilepsy. Both cerebral palsy and epilepsy are neurological disorders that often coexist with one another.
What is Epilepsy?
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders, epilepsy encompasses a “spectrum of brain disorders,” in which the pattern of normal neuronal activity is disrupted. [1] When the activity of brain cells, or neurons, is disturbed, convulsions (known as seizures) and muscle spasms result.
During these episodes, some children will experience loss of consciousness. As the fourth most common neurological disorder in the world, epilepsy can affect anyone at any age. Around 1 out of every 100,000 people develop epilepsy each year.
There are a number of different types of seizures, and people with epilepsy may experience one or several of the various types. It’s important to note that there is a difference between epilepsy and seizures. Someone who has only one seizure generally does not have epilepsy.
Epilepsy is marked by recurrent seizures. If someone has at least two but usually more seizures as an ongoing condition, they are more likely to be diagnosed with a seizure disorder, otherwise known as epilepsy.
What Causes Epilepsy?
For about half of epilepsy cases, there’s no known cause. Among the known causes of epilepsy, the most common include:
Prenatal Injuries
During intrauterine life, the developing brain of a fetus is highly susceptible to damage. This can occur from prenatal infections, maternal alcohol and drug use, when the oxygen or blood supply is low, and with poor nutrition or vitamin deficiencies.
Developmental and Genetic Disorders
As mentioned earlier, cerebral palsy and epilepsy often coexist. Other neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders that can be associated with epilepsy include conditions like autism, neurofibromatosis, Angelman syndrome, and many others.
Sometimes a mutation in one or more genes can cause abnormalities in the brain that can be passed down and make a whole family more susceptible to epilepsy or other brain disorders.
Head Trauma
Head trauma, such as birth injuries, motor vehicle collisions, or any accident in which the head undergoes traumatic damage can lead to epilepsy. [2]
Diseases
A number of infectious diseases can cause direct damage to brain tissue, such as viral encephalitis and meningitis, which can result in epilepsy.
Oxygen Loss
Any significant lack of oxygen to the brain before, during, or after birth, can cause seizures in babies. This can also occur with people of any age with a stroke, which is a bleed or obstruction to the blood flow in the brain. The brain damage that occurs is very often permanent and may leave the child with a seizure disorder.
What are the Symptoms of Epilepsy?
The main symptom of epilepsy is recurrent seizures, which are marked by any of the following:
Uncontrollable, jerking body movements, usually in the arms and legs
Repetitive movements of the face, including lip-smacking or chewing
Loss of awareness
Drooling
Difficulty talking
Rigid, tense muscles
The skin may look pale or flushed
Racing heart
Dilated pupils or staring
Sweating
Tongue biting
Tremors
Keep in mind that not every child will experience all of these symptoms.
Epilepsy Treatment
Physicians usually treat epilepsy with medication. [3] The type of medicine prescribed is based on the particular seizure type experienced by the child. However, since each child is different, finding the correct medication, along with the right dosage, can be an arduous process.
Doctors usually prescribe the first medication at a low dosage to see how effective it is, and how many side effects the child will experience. Most epilepsy medications have significant side effects, especially when they are first started, which can include dizziness, weight gain, fatigue, nausea, skin rashes, and more, depending on which medication is prescribed.
Over half of the people who begin medication find success with this method of treatment, and with continued use, may even eventually become seizure-free. There are some for whom the medication works well to control the seizures, but they will have to continue on medicine for life in order to remain seizure-free.
If medications fail to work, physicians may recommend a treatment called vagus nerve stimulation. This involves the placement of a small device into the patient’s chest. This device sends low levels of electrical energy to stimulate the vagus nerve, which may reduce seizure activity between 20% and 40%.
The ketogenic diet is another treatment option for epilepsy that fails to respond to medication. It’s a strict diet, however, that entails substantially lowering carbohydrates while increasing fats. The body will then use fat for energy, as opposed to carbohydrates.
It is a difficult diet for families to follow because of the severe limitations in what the child may eat, as well as the continuous need to monitor for ketones.
You’ll need to work closely with your physician, as well as a dietitian or nutritional counselor, if you decide to have your child try the ketogenic diet, as some children may experience adverse side effects, including dehydration and nutritional deficiencies.
However, with proper medical supervision, the side effects are not too common. Around 10% to 15% of children who go on the ketogenic diet are seizure-free within a year, although it is very rare for people to be able to stay on this diet successfully for long periods of time.
If all other treatments have been exhausted, surgery may be considered as the next option. Surgical procedures are generally only performed as a last resort, and when doctors determine that the seizures occur in a specific part of the brain that doesn’t hinder vision, speech, hearing, or motor function. During the operation, the part of the brain that’s causing seizures is removed.
Studies on Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy
According to a scientific study published in the European Journal of Epilepsy, spastic quadriplegia and spastic diplegia are the most common types of cerebral palsy associated with epilepsy. [4] Symptoms of epilepsy generally start for children with cerebral palsy during the first year of life, some within the first month after birth.
Epilepsy Prognosis
If children respond well to medication, there’s a good chance that they’ll be seizure-free one day, and may even be able to discontinue epilepsy medication use. It is important to note, however, that many children with cerebral palsy will need to remain on medication to control their seizures for life.
The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMM) states that long-term survival rates are lowered when traditional treatment options, such as medications and surgery, fail to work. Accidents from uncontrollable seizures also play into the lower survival rate.
These are cases in which the severity of the seizure disorder is part of an overall more severe form of cerebral palsy, and many other organ systems are affected, leading to a shortened life span.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) can cause a wide range of symptoms and can affect any part of the body. Each person with the condition is affected differently.
The symptoms are unpredictable. Some people’s symptoms develop and worsen steadily over time, while for others they come and go.
Periods when symptoms get worse are known as “relapses”. Periods when symptoms improve or disappear are known as “remissions”.
Most people with MS only have a few of these symptoms.
See your GP if you’re worried you might have early signs of MS. The symptoms can be similar to several other conditions, so they’re not necessarily caused by MS.
Feeling fatigued is one of the most common and troublesome symptoms of MS.
It’s often described as an overwhelming sense of exhaustion that means it’s a struggle to carry out even the simplest activities.
Fatigue can significantly interfere with your daily activities and tends to get worse towards the end of each day, in hot weather, after exercising, or during illness.
Vision problems
In around one in four cases of MS, the first noticeable symptom is a problem with one of your eyes (optic neuritis). You may experience:
some temporary loss of vision in the affected eye, usually lasting for days to weeks
colour blindness
eye pain, which is usually worse when moving the eye
flashes of light when moving the eye
Other problems that can occur in the eyes include:
double vision
involuntary eye movements, which can make it seem as though stationary objects are jumping around
Occasionally, both of your eyes may be affected.
Abnormal sensations
Abnormal sensations can be a common initial symptom of MS.
This often takes the form of numbness or tingling in different parts of your body, such as the arms, legs or trunk, which typically spreads out over a few days.
Muscle spasms, stiffness and weakness
MS can cause your muscles to:
contract tightly and painfully (spasm)
become stiff and resistant to movement (spasticity)
feel weak
Mobility problems
MS can make walking and moving around difficult, particularly if you also have muscle weakness and spasticity (see above). You may experience:
clumsiness
difficulty with balance and co-ordination (ataxia)
shaking of the limbs (tremor)
dizziness and vertigo, which can make it feel as though everything around you is spinning
Pain
Some people with MS experience pain, which can take two forms:
Pain caused by MS itself (neuropathic pain) – this is pain caused by damage to the nervous system. This may include stabbing pains in the face and a variety of sensations in the trunk and limbs, including feelings of burning, pins and needles, hugging or squeezing. Muscle spasms can sometimes be painful.
Musculoskeletal pain – back, neck and joint pain can be indirectly caused by MS, particularly for people who have problems walking or moving around that puts pressure on their lower back or hips.
Problems with thinking, learning and planning
Some people with MS have problems with thinking, learning and planning – known as cognitive dysfunction. This can include:
problems learning and remembering new things – long-term memory is usually unaffected
slowness in processing lots of information or multi-tasking
a shortened attention span
getting stuck on words
problems with understanding and processing visual information, such as reading a map
difficulty with planning and problem solving – people often report that they know what they want to do, but can’t grasp how to do it
problems with reasoning, such as mathematical laws or solving puzzles
However, many of these problems aren’t specific to MS and can be caused by a wide range of other conditions, including depression and anxiety, or even some medications.
Mental health issues
Many people with MS experience periods of depression. It’s unclear whether this is directly caused by MS, or is due to the stress of having to live with a long-term condition, or both.
Anxiety can also be a problem for people with MS, possibly due to the unpredictable nature of the condition.
In rare cases, people with MS can experience rapid and severe mood swings, suddenly bursting into tears, laughing or shouting angrily for no apparent reason.
Sexual problems
MS can have an effect on sexual function.
Men with MS often find it hard to obtain or maintain an erection (erectile dysfunction). They may also find it takes a lot longer to ejaculate when having sex or masturbating, and may even lose the ability to ejaculate altogether.
For women, problems include difficulty reaching orgasm, as well as decreased vaginal lubrication and sensation.
Both men and women with MS may find they are less interested in sex than they were before. This could be directly related to MS, or it could be the result of living with the condition.
Bladder problems
Bladder problems are common in MS. They may include:
having to pee more frequently
having a sudden, urgent need to pee, which can lead to unintentionally passing urine (urge incontinence)
difficulty emptying the bladder completely
having to get up frequently during the night to pee
These problems can also have a range of causes other than MS.
Bowel problems
Many people with MS also have problems with their bowel function.
Constipation is the most common problem. You may find passing stools difficult and pass them much less frequently than normal.
Bowel incontinence is less common, but is often linked to constipation. If a stool becomes stuck, it can irritate the wall of the bowel, causing it to produce more fluid and mucus that can leak out of your bottom.
Again, some of these problems aren’t specific to MS and can even be the result of medications, such as medicines prescribed for pain.
Speech and swallowing difficulties
Some people with MS experience difficulty chewing or swallowing (dysphagia) at some point.
Speech may also become slurred, or difficult to understand (dysarthria)
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition which can affect the brain and/or spinal cord, causing a wide range of potential symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
It’s a lifelong condition that can sometimes cause serious disability, although it can occasionally be mild. In many cases, it’s possible to treat symptoms. Average life expectancy is slightly reduced for people with MS.
It’s estimated that there are more than 100,000 people diagnosed with MS in the UK.
It’s most commonly diagnosed in people in their 20s and 30s, although it can develop at any age. It’s about two to three times more common in women than men.
Symptoms of MS
The symptoms of MS vary widely from person to person and can affect any part of the body.
The main symptoms include:
fatigue
difficulty walking
vision problems, such as blurred vision
problems controlling the bladder
numbness or tingling in different parts of the body
muscle stiffness and spasms
problems with balance and co-ordination
problems with thinking, learning and planning
Depending on the type of MS you have (see below), your symptoms may come and go in phases, or get steadily worse over time (progress).
See your GP if you’re worried you might have early signs of MS.
The early symptoms often have many other causes, so they’re not necessarily a sign of MS. Let your GP know about the specific pattern of symptoms you’re experiencing.
If you GP thinks you could have MS, you’ll be referred to a neurologist (a specialist in conditions of the nervous system), who may suggest tests such as a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to check for features of MS.
MS starts in one of two general ways: with individual relapses (attacks or exacerbations) or with gradual progression.
Relapsing-remitting MS
More than 8 out of every 10 people with MS are diagnosed with the “relapsing remitting” type.
Someone with relapsing remitting MS will have episodes of new or worsening symptoms, known as “relapses”. These typically worsen over a few days, last for days to weeks to months, then slowly improve over a similar time period.
Relapses often occur without warning, but are sometimes associated with a period of illness or stress.
The symptoms of a relapse may disappear altogether, with or without treatment, although some symptoms often persist, with repeated attacks happening over several years.
Periods between attacks are known as periods of “remission”. These can last for years at a time.
After many years (usually decades), many, but not all people, with relapsing remitting MS go on to develop secondary progressive MS. In this type of MS, symptoms gradually worsen over time without obvious attacks. Some people continue to have infrequent relapses during this stage.
Around half of people with relapsing remitting MS will develop secondary progressive MS within 15-20 years, and the risk of this happening increases the longer you have the condition.
Primary progressive MS
Just over 1 in 10 people with the condition start their MS with a gradual worsening of symptoms.
In primary progressive MS, symptoms gradually worsen and accumulate over several years, and there are no periods of remission, though people often have periods where their condition appears to stabilise.
What causes MS?
MS is an autoimmune condition. This is when something goes wrong with the immune system and it mistakenly attacks a healthy part of the body – in this case, the brain or spinal cord of the nervous system.
In MS, the immune system attacks the layer that surrounds and protects the nerves, called the myelin sheath. This damages and scars the sheath, and potentially the underlying nerves, meaning that messages travelling along the nerves become slowed or disrupted.
Exactly what causes the immune system to act in this way is unclear, but most experts think a combination of genetic and environmental factors is involved.
There’s currently no cure for MS, but a number of treatments can help control the condition.
The treatment you need will depend on the specific symptoms and difficulties you have. It may include:
treating relapses with short courses of steroid medication to speed up recovery
specific treatments for individual MS symptoms
treatment to reduce the number of relapses with medicines called disease-modifying therapies
Disease-modifying therapies may also help to slow or reduce the overall worsening of disability of MS in people with relapsing remitting MS, and in people with secondary progressive MS who are still having relapses.
Unfortunately, there’s currently no treatment that can slow the progress of primary progressive MS or secondary progressive MS in the absence of relapses. Many therapies aiming to treat progressive MS are currently being researched.
MS can be a challenging condition to live with, but new treatments over the past 20 years have considerably improved the quality of life of people with the condition.
MS itself is rarely fatal, but complications may arise from severe MS, such as chest or bladder infections, or swallowing difficulties.
The average life expectancy for people with MS is around 5 to 10 years lower than average, and this gap appears to be getting smaller all the time.
Disablities & Mental Health Issues 