Treatment and therapy
The therapy of a brain atrophy depends on the triggering disease. The aim of any treatment is to stop the progression of the brain atrophy. Correspondingly, attempts are made to treat the causal underlying disease adequately.
If the brain atrophy is caused by drug or alcohol abuse, withdrawal therapy should be carried out. If the brain atrophy was caused by bacterial infections, antibiotics are used. If viruses are responsible for the brain atrophy, virustatics are administered.With dementia, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, we try to find an individual way to reduce the loss of brain mass. Treatment can include medication, as well as ergotherapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, neuropsychotherapy and neurosurgery. Empathic and competent advice and support from relatives is also very important.
Course of a brain atrophy
A brain atrophy can occur suddenly as a result of an acute event, such as a severe stroke, and can cause nerve cells to die off in a very short time. In these cases, the brain atrophy does not have to progress in general. If a brain atrophy is caused by degenerative diseases, the onset is usually gradual. In these cases the brain atrophy is progressive (progressive).
Frequently asked questions
Overall, brain atrophy is often irreversible. This means that the nerve cells that have died off usually do not regenerate again. However, it is possible, within certain limits, that new nerve cells are formed.
Depending on the cause of the brain atrophy, this can be stopped. This means, for example, that if you give up alcohol and drugs, the brain atrophy will not continue. In degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis or Alzheimer’s disease, the progression can only be delayed but not stopped.
This means that the breakdown of brain tissue continues. The brain atrophy itself is not hereditary, but a few basic diseases that can cause brain atrophy can be inherited. Pick’s disease, for example, is inherited.
It used to be that brain atrophy included a minimization of life expectancy. In the meantime, the medical possibilities have developed further, so that the assumption that brain atrophy reduces life expectancy can no longer be maintained. In the meantime, there are more efficient examination possibilities as well as more targeted drug, surgical and non-drug measures that can counteract brain atrophy to a certain extent or have compensatory benefits.
Thus, brain atrophy does not correlate with life expectancy in principle. This means that there is not generally a lower life expectancy with brain atrophy. Depending on the other symptoms, influences and conditions of the disease that caused the brain atrophy, life expectancy can be different or lower.
In the case of dementia, various pathomechanisms lead to the death of nerve cells and thus to brain atrophy. The cause of the respective form of dementia can be different. So far, 4 possible causes have been identified.
These include circulatory disorders, the presence of Lewy corpuscles, amyloid plaques and deposits of a protein called tau. The different forms of dementia differ in a few typical characteristics, but all of them cause disorders in thinking, acting, speech and coordination. In cerebellar atrophy, brain matter of the cerebellum dwindles.
The causes are divided into three groups: The hereditary forms, are the cerebellar atrophies that are inherited. The symptomatic forms are triggered by drugs, viruses or alcohol, for example. The sporadic forms are accepted when both other forms can be excluded.
The forms differ according to their symptomatology and have characteristic features, but all have in common that the cerebellum atrophies. As a result, there are failures that affect the actual tasks of the cerebellum. This means that those affected often have problems in the body’s movement coordination, sensitivity disorders, limitations in eye motor functions, and cognitive deficits. The classic four symptoms of cerebellar atrophy are ataxia, dysmetria, intention tremor and dysarthria.
- The hereditary,
- The sporadic and
- The symptomatic form.
- Ataxia is characterized by uncoordinated, uncontrolled movements of the trunk, arms and legs.
- Dysmetry describes a grasping or aiming or pointing past a target.
- Intention tremor is a tremor of the arms, which is manifested when the arms are grasped purposefully.
- Dysarthria is a speech disorder that manifests itself in choppy, washed-out or otherwise altered articulation.
