The term "neurological diseases" encompasses a wide spectrum of illnesses that affect the central nervous system (brain and medulla) or the peripheral nervous system (nerves that run outside of the spinal cord and innervate the musculature).
Neurological diseases:
- Stroke and bleeding in the brain
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson´s disease
- Disorders of the brain or medulla (traumatic brain injuries, paraplegia)
- Disorders of the peripheral nerves
- Disease of the musculature
- Migraines
- Tinnitus
- Injuries of the spinal cord (herniations that includes nerve irritations)
Physical therapy can help people with neurological diseases or injuries of the central and peripheral nerve systems whose range of motion and thus daily actitivites are affected.
What problems can physical therapy improve or solve?
- Reduced professional capabilities, recreational activities or social life
- Reduced capacity to carry out daily activities, for example standing up, walking and using the arms and hands to write, east, dress, grooming, etc.
- Noticeable reduction in energy or strength
- Loss of endurance and tiring rapidly
- Uncoordinated or awkward movements
- Problems maintaining balance, frequent stumbling or falling
- Facial palsy and/or problems with swallowing
- Pain that impairs movement
- Numbness or tingling in the arms or legs
What does therapy entail?
After an initial examination, which includes primarily an analysis of physical capabilities, the therapist and patient set the therapeutic goals together. The treatments are then agreed upon, and tailored to the patient´s individual needs.
- Where paralysis exists, initiation of new muscular actvity and patterns
- Maintenance of mobility (through active movement, stretching, positioning and manual techniques)
- Practice of existing capabilities (improvment of strength, coordination, endurance)
- Relearning movement patterns that have grown more difficult or been lost; reintegrating them into daily life
- Developing and learning compensation strategies
- Counseling of family members
- Creation of an exercise program
- Help with selecting, obtaining and adjusting assitive devices
