Athetoid cerebral palsy
Athetoid cerebral palsy refers to a category of reoccurring conditions that play a role in your body’s ability to move properly and also affect how well coordinated your muscles are. Athetoid cerebral palsy is a result of brain damage during pregnancy, delivery, or after delivery. While there are quite a few different types of cerebral palsy, athetoid cerebral palsy is definitely one of the more serious versions.
How Severe Is The Condition?
Athetoid cerebral palsy is a type of athetonia and it is a slowly developing condition that leads to muscles contracting by themselves. As a result there are quite a few symptoms which will be covered later in the article. The main direct cause of athetoid cerebral palsy is the basal ganglia, which is located in the middle of your brain, gets damaged. It is a condition that affects roughly one in four cerebral palsy patients.
As far as how severe the condition, there will definitely be some complications if you are diagnosed with it. Athetoid cerebral palsy commonly affects your arms, legs, hands, and feet. Athetoid cerebral palsy may also affect your face or tongue. With less control of your muscles in these areas it could cause you to drool involuntary. By not being able to completely control all muscles in your body it could cause quite a few conditions such as emotional stress.
Athetoid Cerebral Palsy Symptoms
As just noted, emotional stress can occur due to the athetoid cerebral palsy. There are still some other athetoid cerebral palsy symptoms as well. Usually these symptoms will go away when you are sleeping though which is definitely interesting.
The most common symptoms include: very weak muscle coordination, improper walking patterns (likely with feet spread too far apart), difficulties making speedy movement, difficulties making voluntary movements, and obviously some of the symptoms associated with cerebral palsy in general.
There are quite a few complications as a result of athetoid cerebral palsy and the listed symptoms gives you a brief idea of them. You should also know what exactly makes these symptoms occur. The main reason behind them would be that your muscles are switching back and forth between being floppy and tense.
Athetoid cerebral palsy will ultimately cause involuntary movements to occur and can affect how you move even when it is voluntarily. Due to this it may appear that someone is moving even when they are not. This is also noteworthy as athetoid cerebral palsy can cause someone to have very poor posture and lack the ability to maintain proper posture over even a short period of time. People suffering from athetoid cerebral palsy may also have problems holding objects, especially heavy ones, so getting it treated is very important.
Athetoid Cerebral Palsy Treatment Options
Thankfully athetoid cerebral palsy can be treated and even though it may be impossible to completely rid of the condition it can still minimize the side effects. The treatment options will vary depending on your condition but physical therapy is definitely mandatory. As soon as you get diagnosed with athetoid cerebral palsy you will want to undergo physical therapy. You will be given a list of helpful exercises that can help prevent your muscles from getting weaker and will help you to be able to control them better.
If athetoid cerebral palsy has caused you to develop dysarthia as well then you will need to go through speech therapy. This process can not only help you with your communication skills but it will make swallowing food a lot easier as well. For those that need assistance with speech therapy, there should be a professional that can help with the process.
Ultimately, if you think you might have athetoid cerebral palsy after reading the details of the condition, you should speak with your doctor. He or she will be able to properly diagnose your condition and determine the best treatment method available for you. The sooner you start treating it, the better.
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