Neuropathological disorders: classification and clinical manifestations

Psychology

Neuropathological Disorders

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease is a neurological disorder that causes steady deterioration of the body's nerves and muscles. The cause of the disease is not known, and it affects men and women on an equivalent basis. At first, a person with Lou Gehrig's disease will experience a lack of coordination and not being able to hold on to objects and trouble performing everyday tasks. They could also feel tiredness, along with muscle twitches and trouble speaking. Because the disease usually occurs in middle to older age, it is often confused with the normal aging process (Carlson, 2011).

As the disease advances, the person will have trouble walking. They may also lose the capability to control their hands, to the point where they can't dress or bath themselves. Eventually, they will need a motorized wheel chair for transportation because they will not be able to use a manual one. In the later stages of the disease as the muscles continue to atrophy, the person's nerve and muscle function will worsen to the point where they will need a ventilator to help them breathe. Paralysis will continue to spread throughout the body, and limb function will cease. A person may also be unable to chew or swallow (Carlson, 2011).

Approximately ninety percent of people with ALS do not have a family history of ALS in any closely related family members. In these people, the cause of ALS is complex, resulting from a mixture of both genetic and environmental variables. Genes involved in the non-familial form of ALS are occasionally called susceptibility genes because they augment the risk to get the disease. Susceptibility genes are believed to act together with other genes as well as the environment to cause ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), 2005).

The remaining ten percent of people with ALS have the familial form of the disease, in which numerous family members are affected by ALS. The familial form of ALS includes both small families where as few as two family members have ALS to families with a lot of family members with the disease. Genes that are involved in the large families with a lot of individuals with ALS are sometimes called causative genes since they are usually sufficient to cause ALS devoid of any other genes or factors being involved. Genes involved in the smaller ALS families can either be susceptibility or causative genes (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), 2005).

There appears to be no clear cause in the majority of ALS cases and there is just one medication, riluzole, has been shown to modestly prolong survival. Research has recognized some of the cellular processes that take place after disease onset, including mitochondrial dysfunction, protein aggregation, generation of free radicals, excitotoxicity, inflammation and apoptosis, but for most people the underlying cause is unknown. While ALS is measured to be a multifaceted genetic disorder in which multiple genes in amalgamation with environmental exposures merge to render a person susceptible, few genetic or environmental risks have been revealed to date (Gordon, 2011).