Disorders Of Movement

Disorders Of Movement

By:


Over forty million Americans 1 in every 7- suffer with a movement disorder. Thats more than twice the number of individuals who suffer with diabetes, which, is in itself a staggering number. An individual who has a movement disorder will typically see on average 15 different doctors, over the course of five years before one of them actually recognizes and properly diagnoses the disorder. To those individuals suffering with movement disorders, this is a very concerning problem and as such those suffering are very much underserved. Making this worse, movement disorders, once recognized, are typically treated by drug therapies which were not necessarily developed for the treatment of any particular movement disorders. And if this is not bad enough, the majority of these drugs are actually confirmed to precipitate movement disorders, such as tremors. Surprisingly, one can develop these tremor side affects, (called tardive dyskinesias), from one dose of prescribed medication. Most people think that you have to take several doese of a drug before it will inflict side affects, though in reality, this is clearly not the situation. So is there a better approach to this? Well, actually in a word, yes. As a functional neurologist, I mostly spend my day with patients with movement disorders, most of whom have been referred to me to diagnose what is going on with them and what is making them to move the way they do. Many of these movement disorders can in reality be managed better without drug therapies using neurologic rehabilitation, whereby we restructure the brains neurologic connections using basic exercises and activities, affording the brain appropriate integration of the many neuronal pools which all have to work synergistically together at all times. The magic to this is that the diagnosis needs to be particularly precise, as no two patients, even with the same movement disorder, are typically going to be managed the same. In light of the simplicity of this approach as well as the lack of harmful side affects, there is little logic in utilizing alternative drug therapies rather than appropriate neurologic rehabilitation. Another problem with the drug approach lies in the fact that since the drugs are not treating anything at all and at best attempting to reduce some symptoms, the underlying cause continues to worsen. Often times as this goes on for a long period, the movement disorder becomes difficult or even impossible to completely correct due to the vast reorganizational restructuring that have now taken place in the brains many interconnections. This is very frustrating for me as a doctor as well as for a patient suffering with a movement disorder as had they come in years sooner the problem would have been much easier to treat successfully.

About the Author:
Jersey Shore Regional Center for Vertigo, Dizziness, Dystonia and ADD ADHD. Visit Dr. Scopellitis Guestbook to see what patients say. Dr. Scopelliti is board certified in Neurology & Vestibular Rehabilitation and is an author/lecturer of postdoctoral neurology. Specialties: vertigo, dizziness, imbalance, presyncope, dystonia, ADD ADHD, coma & neurologic/behavioral/cognitive disorders.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: , , ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent Medicine Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.