Cerebral Palsy Adults

Despite the staggering numbers of infants and children having a disorder called cerebral palsy, most people doesn’t know that cerebral palsy adults can be acquired due to head injuries which damaged the brain. Likewise any accidents that would cause any injuries and traumas in the head could lead to cerebral palsy adults. It is also believed that if an adult have suffered a lot of head injuries as a child such as falling on the floor and hitting the head or having the head bumped into anything hard frequently could also lead to this chronic disorder during the adult years. Just like the cerebral palsy found in children and infants, these adults who are affected would generally have different symptoms exhibited because there are different areas in the brain affected.  Cases seen in adults vary depending on which type of cerebral palsy the person has.

Cerebral Palsy Adults

Cerebral palsy is categorized according to the motor impairment of the body, spastic cerebral palsy, choreoathetoid or athetoid cerebral palsy and hypotonic cerebral palsy. Often the type of cerebral palsy seen in a person is a combination of one or more of these types.

When a person has spastic cerebral palsy the muscle tone is increased which would cause stiffness and rigidness in the arms and legs. When the muscle tone would only affect one side of the body, this is called hemiparesis, but if the two legs of the person are affected this is already  spastic diplegia and when all the arms and legs are affected, it’s referred to as quadriparesis. Along with this, there would also be muscle weakness and a general feeling of being fatigue always. If the muscle tones in the face are affected this would mean that the person would have speech problems, cannot eat or swallow food properly and the facial expression is limited. Because of the increased muscle tone the person affected would have a problem with controlling urine output since the bladder would be pressured from the spasm causing it to contract and spill urine.

The choreoathetoid or athetoid cerebral palsy is the type wherein there is uncontrollable writhing and jerking movements of the limbs like the arms and legs. Unlike the spastic cerebral palsy which has increased muscle tone, this type has decreased muscle tone called hypotonia. A simple voluntary movement could cause or trigger involuntary movement which is very dilapidating to a person’s body. Because of the triggered involuntary movements, the person affected would have a fast metabolism and would be able to consume calories more than an average healthy person which cause them to become hungry more often. In this type the basal ganglia in the brain is affected.

Cerebral palsy adults would also have the hypotonic cerebral palsy type. This type is when the muscle tone is already diminished.  The person affected with this type of cerebral palsy would have more problems with motor skills. Because of the diminished muscle tone it would be hard for the person to regain control of motor skills even when undergoing physical and occupational therapy.