what are some major nervous system diseases?

Question

and a little brief definition (physio cause, treatment, how to deal, behavior modification...)

thanks! =)

Answer 1

Nervous System consists of Autonomic and Central Nervous Systems. Both the systems may suffer from a variety of malfunctioning due to a disease or disorder. Nervous System is the most complex system of our body and hence it will be highly impossible to provide even a brief explanation in here.

Therefore, I will just attempt to list down the diseases or disorders of the Nervous System and provide you few very useful links where you can find a brief description and treatment of each one of those:

Autonomic Nervous System Diseases
this majorly includes Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, Myasthenia Gravis

Central Nervous System Diseases majorly include Brain Diseases, Brain Injury, Infections, Malformations, Spinal Cord Diseases, Spinal Cord Injury

Other diseases and disorders related to Nervous System include:
Cranial Nerve Diseases, Demyelinating Diseases, Nervous System Malformations, Neurologic Manifestations and Neuromuscular Diseases

Following links will provide with you an explanation of the above conditions and treatment:

http://healthlibrary.stanford.edu/resources/internet/bodysystems/neuro_degenerative.html

http://www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/C10.html

Hope this information helps you with your question.
Good luck!

Answer 2

There are a few main types of illness. Firstly those affecting the peripheral nervous system: -Poliomyelitis - destroys motor nerves -Diabetes mellitus - where small blood vessels that supply peripheral nerves are damaged - Shingles - caused by herpes zoster virus, happens when the virus infects sensory nerve cells. V painful - Guillain-Barré syndrome - autoimmune disease (where the body's own immune system attacks the body) where the sheath around peripheral nerves is destroyed, leading to decreased signal transmission across them. Quite a rare disease, but interesting all the same. I suppose diseases of the CNS could be broken down into subgroups: Degenerative diseases: - Alzheimer's disease - formation of tangles and plaques in brain nerve cells, resulting in degeneration of many parts of the brain - Parkinson's disease - degeneration of the pars compacta, a major dopamine-producing region of the brain. The pars compacta controls the basal ganglia, which regulate how much the body moves - Multiple Sclerosis - An autoimmune disease that attacks the myelin sheaths of nerve cells in the brain (like Guillain-Barré syndrome, but in the brain) can cause a range of neurological effects Due to vascular problems: - stroke - where a blood vessel supplying part of the brain is blocked, starving that part of the brain of oxygen - aneurysm - where a blood vessel supplying the brain swells and may burst, reducing the blood pressure and again, starving the brain of oxygen - haemorrhage - put simply, where blood from a head injury pools in the skull, and puts pressure on the brain Tumours: - Many different types of tumour, which can affect different parts of the brain. May be primary (originating in the brain) or secondary (due to metastasis from a malignant tumour in another part of the body) Genetic: - Huntington's chorea - mutant allele causes death of some nerve cells in the brain Infection: - Meningitis - literally, infection of the meninges, the protective casing around the brain and spinal cord. May be viral, bacterial or amoebic. I noticed above that another answer mentioned Broca's/Wernicke's aphasia. These are not diseases in themselves, but symptoms of a disease. For example, a person who has had a stroke may suffer from Broca's aphasia because Broca's area of the brain has been starved of oxygen, and does not function properly.

Answer 3

Well there are a lot of auto-immune ones.

1. Multiple Sclerosis - An autoimmune disease where your white blood cells attack the myelin sheats that cover your neurons in your brain, spinal chord and peripheral nerves. They get attacked, become inflamed and can lead to fatigue, sensory changes and problems, severe pain and limited movement. There is currently no cure, however western medicine tries its best to slow it down with immune suppressant drugs or chemotherapy.

2. Myasthenia gravis - a neuromuscular junction disease where your WBC's attack the junction, severing the nerve signals from the muscle. This leads ultimately to severe weakness and fatigue. There also is no cure.

3. Alzheimer's, which is a neurodegenerative disease manifested by slowing cognitive fuction and dementia. The cause is unknown but its due to inflammation and neural necrosis - death of neurons in the cortex. The ususal treatment of this disease uses acetylcholinesterase inhibitors to allow ACH more time to work in the synapse before it is metabolised.

4. Parkinsons is a movement disorder disease. The pathophys is extremely complexed, but basically the cells that produce dopamine die resulting in a decreased level of dopamine. Dopamine works by a few pathways which result in the supression of extra movements in skeletal muscle. If dopamine levels are low, the supression of excess movements is reduced and therefore a patient experiences tremors and jitters. Treat with levo-dopa.