Neurological disorders you need to know.

Neurological disorders are health conditions involving the nervous system. A neurological disorder is a disease or injury of the central nervous system that causes paralysis of any part of the body. Sometimes physical injury to the brain, spinal cord or nerves can be the cause of neurological disorders. Sometimes they can result from biochemical causes. Other times, the cause may be unknown and only the effects are seen. Neurological disorders can be a sign that there is an imbalance in your system. When you have an imbalance, you are also susceptible to various diseases which can settle in weak areas of your body.

Neurological disorders are a group of disorders that involve the central nervous system (brain, brainstem and cerebellum), the peripheral nervous system (including cranial nerves), and the autonomic nervous system (parts of which are located in both central and peripheral nervous system). Major branches are headache, stupor and coma,

dementia, seizure, sleep disorders, trauma, infections, neoplasms, neuroophthalmology, movement disorders, demyelinating diseases, spinal cord disorders, and disorders of peripheral nerves, muscle and neuromuscular junctions. Neurological disabilities are associated with damage to the nervous system (including the brain and spinal cord) that results in the loss of some bodily or mental functions. Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and Epilepsy are two of the most prevalent neurological disabilities. Heart attacks, infections, genetic disorders, and lack of oxygen to the brain may also result in a neurological disability.

Neurological disorders are quite diverse, chronic, challenging to treat, and often disabling. They can be caused by many different factors, including (but not limited to): inherited genetic abnormalities, problems in the immune system, injury to the brain or nervous system, or diabetes. Many mental illnesses are believed to be neurological disorders of the central nervous system, but they are classified separately. They are not traditionally listed as neurological diseases because their causes are not definitely determined as biological, although there are good reasons to suspect that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have neuro-chemical causes. The human central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. These lie in the midline of the body and are associated with the skull and vertebrae respectively. The central nervous system along with the peripheral nervous system comprise a primary division of controls that command all physical activities of a vertebrate. Neurons of the central nervous system affect consciousness and mental activity while spinal extensions of central nervous system neuron pathways affect skeletal muscles and organs in the body.

Major neurological conditions and diseases..

- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease, a non-contagious chronic autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system which can present with a variety of neurological symptoms occurring in attacks or slowly progressing over time. It has no cure yet and the exact cause remains unknown. Due to its effects of the nervous system, it can lead to long-term impaired mobility and disability in severe cases. Multiple sclerosis slowly progressive autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the protective myelin sheaths that surround the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord (a process called demyelination), resulting in damaged areas that are unable to transmit nerve impulses.
Cerebral palsy - Cerebral palsy or CP is a group of disorders associated with developmental brain injuries that occur during fetal development, birth, or shortly after birth. It is characterized by a disruption of motor skills, with symptoms such as spasticity, paralysis, or seizures. Cerebral palsy is also known as static encephalopathy and Little's disease (which is strictly speaking only the "spastic diplegia" form of CP). It is no longer considered a disease, but rather it is a chronic nonprogressive neurological disorder. The incidence is about 1.5 to 4 per 1000 live births. There is no cure, but therapy may be helpful. It has one of the highest lifetime costs of any birth defect.
A headache is a condition of mild to severe pain in the head; sometimes upper back or neck pain may also be interpreted as a headache. Most headaches are due to tension, migraine, or a combination of the two. Serious underlying causes of headaches, like a tumor or a stroke, are extremely rare, despite the fact that many people worry about these possibilities. Migraine headache is a primary headache disorder with, almost certainly, a genetic basis. Activation of a mechanism deep in the brain causes release of pain-producing inflammatory substances around the nerves and blood vessels of the head.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive disorder in which brain cells (neurons) deteriorate, resulting in the loss of cognitive functions, primarily memory, judgment and reasoning, movement coordination, and pattern recognition. In advanced stages of the disease, all memory and mental functioning may be lost. A person with Alzheimer's disease usually has a gradual decline in mental functions, often beginning with slight memory loss, followed by losses in the ability to maintain employment, to plan and execute familiar tasks, and to reason and exercise judgment. The ultimate cause or causes of Alzheimer's disease are still unknown, there are several risk factors that increase a person's likelihood of developing the disease.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is an illness characterized by prolonged, debilitating fatigue and multiple nonspecific symptoms such as headaches, recurrent sore throats, muscle and joint pains, memory and concentration difficulties. Profound fatigue, the hallmark of the disorder, can come on suddenly or gradually and persists or recurs throughout the period of illness. Unlike the short-term disability of say, the flu, chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms linger for at least six months and often for years. The cause of chronic fatigue syndrome remains unknown.
Parkinson's disease - Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra (an area in the basal ganglia). Parkinson's disease involves a breakdown of the nerve cells in the motor area of the brain. As the cells break down, there is a shortage of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or chemical that carries messages to the body. When there is a shortage of dopamine, the messages that regulate movement aren't sent properly. Parkinson's disease happens when nerve cells (neurons) in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra gradually die. These cells normally produce dopamine, a chemical that helps to relay messages between areas of the brain that control body movement.
- Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when tendons in the wrist become inflamed after being aggravated. Tendons can become aggravated when the carpals (a tunnel of bones) and the ligaments in the wrist narrow, pinching nerves that reach the fingers and the muscle at the base of the thumb. Repetitive flexing and extension of the wrist may cause a thickening of the protective sheaths that surround each of the tendons, which narrows the tunnel. Women are three times more likely to develop CTS than men, and the risk increases with age. People between the ages of 40 and 60 are more commonly affected.
- Neuropathy is the disease of the nervous system. Neuropathy is a disturbance in the function of a nerve or particular group of nerves. Many people who have had diabetes for a while have nerve damage. The three major forms of nerve damage are: peripheral neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy, and mononeuropathy. The most common form is peripheral neuropathy, which mainly affects the feet and legs. Neuropathy can lead to disability, amputation, decreased ambulation as well as foot and leg ulceration because of loss or damage to nerves which feel sensation in the lower limbs. Thank you, for taking the time to read about my articles in the field of neurology, neuropsychology and cognitive-behavior modification. Cordially, Dr. Dulce

Cognitive Deficits and Structural Brain Changes Associated with Dementia and Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson's Disease

Written by: Dulce M. Matamoros Columbie, PhD.

Lecture: University of Barcelona (Spain) 2012

Summary:

Cognitive impairment of different degrees and hallucinations are common complications of chronic Parkinson’s disease (PD). The pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and relationship between cognitive deficits and presence of hallucinations are not fully understood but both impact severely on overall disability and quality of life of PD patients. Cognitive impairment and dementia are the most frequently reported risk factors for visual hallucinations (VH) in PD. Similarly, most studies have found a greater prevalence of psychosis in demented versus non-demented patients with PD. However, although the relationship between VH and cognitive dysfunction is well established, it seems that the emergence of visual hallucinations is not caused directly by the presence of general cognitive impairment because not all PD patients with dementia experienced VH and association studies reported several risk factors for the development of this symptom supporting a multicausal nature of this phenomenon. The data presented in this dissertation intend to give some clues towards a better understanding of the cerebral basis and neuropsychological deficits associated with dementia and visual hallucinations in Parkinson disease patients.

The general aims of this thesis were: 1) To study in vivo structural brain changes associated with dementia and visual hallucinations in Parkinson disease patients.

2) To cognitively characterize a group of non-demented PD patients with VH in a cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

For this purpose, we carried out five studies examining cognitive functions and structural brain characteristics in PD patients using neuropsychological and MRI methods. The first and the second investigations evaluated a sample of PD patients with and without dementia. The three last studies were carried out with non-demented PD patients with and without visual hallucinations.

The results showed that the pattern of cerebral atrophy found in demented PD and PD patients with VH extends well beyond the frontostriatal circuits traditionally described to be responsible for cognitive symptoms in PD. We found grey matter atrophic changes affecting temporal and occipital regions in demented PD patients and in non-demented hallucinating PD patients. These findings stress the importance of the posterior cortical structures in the presence of cognitive impairment and VH in PD patients. We also observed a close relationship between the presence of hallucinations and progressive neuro-psychological impairment. The cognitive impairments in hallucinating PD patients were observed in complex visual functions (visuoperceptive-visuospatial skills and visual memory) as well as semantic processing (such as interpretation of perceptual information). This neuro-psychological pattern is in agreement with the atrophic changes found in our MRI study. The gray matter volume reductions involved not only secondary visual association areas but also tertiary areas implicated in the integration of semantic information.

One of the duties of a neuropsychologist

Performed brain scans on patient to understand their function, wada tests, psychological evaluations.
Neuropsychologist for JMH Health System, performing cognitive assessments and clinical follow-ups children and adults. Conduct research in cognitive and clinical outcomes of in-classroom psychotherapy for disturbed young children.
Neurological testing:
*Electromyography (EMG)
*Nerve Conduction Studies (NCV)
*Electroencephalogram (EEG)

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