Etiology of Cerebral Palsy and Methods to Prevent It

Cerebral palsy, or CP, is a disorder which leads to various neurological problems. There are certain standard symptoms of this disease like difficulty in muscular movements, stiffness of muscles, spasticity of muscles, lowered muscle coordination, complications in walking, involuntary movements etc. The severity of the disorder varies from person to person. It may be severe in some individuals where the patient needs to be totally dependent on others. Some may be capable of living independent life. Medical research has proven that around 90 percent of cases occur before birth. Some of the factors which include in etiology of cerebral palsy are low birth weight, bacterial infections, and blood incompatibility. The risk of cerebral palsy also might increase if the mother is suffering from chicken pox, toxoplasmosis, or from syphilis etc.

The mother should be vaccinated in order to prevent chicken pox or measles during pregnancy. Sexual disease like syphilis can also be prevented which leads to cerebral palsy if left untreated. This disease can also be developed due to stroke experienced at the time of pregnancy. Exposure to encephalitis is also another cause of this particular disorder. At times pregnant woman would get exposed to certain chemical accidentally and this would also result in cerebral palsy by affecting brain development of the child.

The above mentioned factors are the potential etiology of cerebral palsy. These etiologies can be prevented by a regular physician visits or by certain very simple precautions. A pregnant lady should always avoid toxins or any chemicals. Immunization records and fetus blood compatibility must be tracked on a regular basis during pregnancy. As gestational diabetes is believed to be one of the causes of CP even this diabetes should be avoided in order to prevent CP. All in all a pregnant woman must avoid consuming unapproved medications and also must treat even a minor infection.

Medical science has yet not found a cure for Cerebral Palsy. The treatment generally given to the patients is to prevent complications that could occur due to this disease, not to remove it, since that may very well prove to be impossible. There are organizations which help affected children, learn to overcome their difficulties using a system of learning called Conductive Education, but this is limited to very few countries in Europe. Hopefully in the future, this will become more widespread, but this therapy is still in it's infantile stages, and has not yet made it to the United States.

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