Cerebral Palsy

As for those who face the challenges of cerebral palsy today, the best hope lies in improving the numerous treatments and therapies that already exist. For example, there is currently research being conducted to identify the exact brain areas controlling specific kinds of movement. By locating brain areas that control specific actions, such as blinking an eye, lifting a leg, or raising an arm, scientists can then make maps of those brain areas. Once they have the maps, they can compare charts made before and after different kinds of therapies to find out how effective a particular kind of therapy is and how it affects the way the brain works.

There is also a great deal of research being done in the development of new drugs, and new ways to use drugs that are already out there, to help relieve such symptoms of cerebral palsy as spasticity, seizures, and epilepsy.

As scientists and researchers continue to explore new treatments for cerebral palsy and to increase what we know about how the brain develops in all its early stages, there is good reason to hope and to expect important medical discoveries in the future that will prevent cerebral palsy and many other disorders that happen in early life.