What is the history of Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is not classified as a disorder. Cerebral palsy has probably been around children as long as there have been children.
In 1861 the medical profession began studying cerebral palsy as a distinct medical condition. Also in 1861 Dr. William John Little published a paper on neurological problems with spastic diplegia. Spastic diplegia is still called little disease. This disorder becomes apparent in the first year of life. Symptoms include stiff spastic muscles in their arms and legs, difficulty walking, crawling and grasping onto objects. They do not improve with age nor do they become any worse. Dr. little believed most cases of cerebral palsy are caused by complications at birth. He suggested the lack of oxygen to the brain following a complicated delivery was part of the problem. In the 1800s Sir William Osler was believed to have coined the term. In the 1800s Sigmund Freud would disagree saying that children only had Cerebral palsy due to complication at birth, Freud would say that children also had other problems such as mental retardation, visual disturbances and seizures. Freud suggested that the cerebral palsy started during the development of the brain in the womb.
In the 1980’s scientists analyzed 35,000 births extensively from government data(http://www.about-cerebral-palsy.org/cerebral-palsy-history/index.html). Live birth trauma was found in thousands of cases of cerebral palsy, a majority of cases had no cause.
The last 2 decades have brought new understanding to what causes cerebral palsy through the sponsored research NINDS (neurological disorders and stroke) and the federal government. The findings from NINDS research have:
· Identified new causes and risk factors for cerebral palsy
· Increase the understanding of how and why brain damage at critical stages of fetal development causes cerebral palsy
· Assigned surgical techniques to correct abnormalities in muscle and bone
· Discover new drugs to control stiff and spastic muscles and develop more precise methods to deliver them
· Test the effectiveness of therapy is used to treat cerebral palsy to discover which methods work best
MRI has given researchers a way to look into the brain and discover unique structural malformations and areas of damage in the brain. Basic science has allowed us to be other identify whether genetic mutations and deletions associated with the abnormal development of the fetal brain.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cerebral_palsy/detail_cerebral_palsy.htm