Are you aware of the challenges and obstacles faced by adult CP patients and different ways to overcome them?
Adult CP has multiple symptoms like premature aging and mental illness. The problems can be related to muscles, nerves, and the brain. The physical problems make people with cerebral palsy fail to live normal lives within our society.
Proper knowledge of the challenges and obstacles faced by cerebral palsy patients can help us in understanding them better and help them live a normal life. If we know the problems well, we can help them integrate into our social life and make them emotionally strong and determined.
Let us know how cerebral palsy affects the life of adults
What is Cerebral Palsy (CP)?
Cerebral Palsy is a group of nervous system disorders that mainly originated in the brain. Cerebral Palsy is mainly muscle related coordination problem but also involves hearing and vision impairment
Cerebral palsy can be detected at an early stage in life. It does not worsen with age, but as the patient becomes an adult, he faces new challenges and problems associated with the disease.
What are the symptoms of cerebral palsy (CP) in adults
Symptoms of cerebral palsy in adults are the following
- Weakness in muscle
- Loss of muscle tone
- Stiffness in muscle
- Scissor-like movement while walking
- Difficulty in swallowing
- Twitching movement in facial muscle
- Pain in muscle
- Paralysis
Challenges faced by adult CP patients
There are numerous challenges faced by adult CP patients. The physical challenges include premature aging, excessive pain, post-impairment syndrome, mental health problems, epileptic seizures, and hearing and vision loss. In society, cerebral palsy patients face isolation and communication problems. In the workplace, cerebral palsy patients are not included in many countries.
What is Premature Aging in adult Cerebral Palsy patients?
People with cerebral palsy overuse their muscles and their joint functions are being excessively used. They drain most of their energy in doing daily activities.
So, the process of aging in cerebral palsy patients starts as early as 40 years of age. There are always problems with osteoarthritis, muscle stiffness, excessive fatigue, and cardiac functionality. Cerebral palsy patients need walking aids and wheelchairs at an early age.
People with cerebral palsy undergo a lot of stress and musculoskeletal problems. This may have a negative effect on the internal organs and the connective tissue leading to premature aging.
What is Post-Impairment Syndrome of CP in adults?
Post-impairment syndrome is a combination of the symptoms of extreme fatigue, pain, muscle stiffness, and draining out of energy with less physical activity.
CP patients drain most of their energy while doing daily activities like lifting light objects and climbing stairs. Only with the help of experienced physical therapists, they can learn to save energy while doing daily activities. This can save them from getting extremely fatigued and feeling pain.
1. Pain in CP adult patients
During childhood CP patients, feel discomfort while doing physical activity. As they grow up, the discomfort turns into pain. The pain is caused by muscle stiffness, cartilage degeneration, shortening of muscles, and compression of major joints in the body like the knee, hip, ankle, and back portion.
The pain can also be caused due to spasticity which is increased muscle contraction. There can be dental pain and gastrointestinal pain due to irregular contraction of the oesophageal muscles.
Patients with cerebral palsy with acute gastrointestinal pain also take a lot of oral painkiller tablets.
2. Mental Health of adult CP patients
In CP patients, mental health problems are often overlooked. Due to physical inability, cerebral palsy patients often suffer from depression, isolation, anxiety, and mood disorders.
According to a study, 20% of adult CP patients suffer from depression.
3. Epilepsy in adult CP patients
The adult CP patients have epileptic seizures as the electrical activity of the brain is damaged. This happens as a result of poor oxygen supply to the brain during development in the mother’s womb.
The main type of seizure that happens in adult cerebral palsy is Grand Mal seizure in which the patient becomes unconscious for a few seconds and then there is a violent contraction of muscle known as a convulsion occurs. It is better to keep the patient on a soft surface (especially the head) during a convulsion.
There are medications to control seizures. It can be very well controlled when seizures are partial and do not become massive in nature.
Try stem cell therapy to manage the various complications associated with cerebral palsy.
4. Impaired hearing
Impaired hearing will start from childhood and will continue in adult life also. As a result of defective nerve pathways carrying signals from ear to brain ( sensorineural), there may be a complete loss of hearing in CP patients. Due to hearing loss, there may be defects in speech and language learning.
5. Impaired vision loss
Defect in the brain that processes visual signals can lead to vision loss in CP patients. This happens from the time a child is born. In adults with vision loss, it is necessary to take the help of efficient healthcare professionals.
6. Social challenges
Social challenges faced by CP adults can be reduced by helping them mix with people with similar disabilities. CP patients have defects in speech and are sometimes unable to communicate properly. Adult CP patients with hearing or vision loss also face difficulties in social life. It is necessary to encourage them, understand their rights, and help them live better lives.
7. Work-life Challenges
The main challenges that adult cerebral palsy patients face in work-related life are non-inclusion and non-representation. It is necessary to include cerebral palsy patients in the workforce and help them use better technology to overcome their physical and mental challenges.
Conclusion
Cerebral palsy in adults can be very challenging. There are numerous complications and obstacles in living a life with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a birth defect disorder, so the problems start surfacing from the very childhood. It is important to manage problems in an efficient way to live a life with dignity and peace.
In order to manage the symptoms of adult cerebral palsy like muscular stiffness, and neurological disorder, modern-day innovative therapy like stem cell treatment can be beneficial.
