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Taken From
About-Cerebral-Palsy.org
History of Cerebral Palsy in Children
Cerebral palsy is not a new disorder. There have probably been
children with cerebral palsy as long as there have been children.
But the medical profession did not begin to study cerebral palsy as
a distinct medical condition until 1861. In that year, an
English orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William John Little, published the
first paper describing the neurological problems of children with
spastic diplegia. Spastic diplegia is still sometimes called
Little's Disease. This was a disorder that struck children in
the first years of life, characterized by stiff, spastic muscles in
their arms and legs. These children had difficulty grasping
objects, crawling, and walking. They did not show signs of
improvement with age, nor did they become any worse.
The term cerebral palsy came into use in the late 1800's. Sir
William Osler, a British medical doctor, is believed to have coined
the term. Dr. Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist better
known for his work in psychiatry, published some of the earliest
medical papers on cerebral palsy. In the early years, Dr.
Little believed most cases of cerebral palsy were caused by
obstetrical complications at birth. He suggested that children
born with cerebral palsy were born following complicated deliveries,
and that their condition was a result of lack of oxygen to the
brain. He said this oxygen shortage damaged sensitive brain
tissues controlling movement. But in the late 1800's, Freud
disagreed. Noting that children with cerebral palsy often had
other problems such as
mental retardation, visual disturbances, and seizures, Freud
suggested that the disorder might be caused earlier in life, during
the brain's development in the womb.
Despite Freud's research on cerebral palsy, the belief that birth
complications accounted for most cases was widespread among doctors,
families, and even medical researchers. In the 1980's,
scientists analyzed extensive data from a government study of more
than 35,000 births. While they found that birth trauma was the
cause of thousands of cerebral palsy cases, no cause could be found
in the majority of cases. This has influenced researchers to
explore other causes, and look at medical theories about cerebral
palsy more closely.
Fortunately, in the past few decades, information on the many facets
of cerebral palsy has significantly increased. Today, the
medical community has great interest in studying cerebral palsy to
determine its causes and the most effective ways to treat it.
As knowledge and treatment techniques have expanded and improved, so
too have the prospects of all children with cerebral palsy.

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