Multiple Sclerosis In Kids And Teens

Added: 06/16/2007

Before we get into how multiple sclerosis can affect kids and teens as a rule. It must first be said exactly what Multiple Sclerosis is for those of you who don't know off the top of their head. What is it? It's an inflammatory disease that affects the Central Nervous System overall. The Central Nervous System that it affects is both the brain and the spinal cord. What causes Multiple Sclerosis? There has been many a theory as to what exactly causes this disease. But the definitive answer is still being researched as of yet as to truly what's what?

Multiple Sclerosis is said to be becoming more and more diagnosed in kids and teens as time is going on. It’s more common than thought because of the new technology and growing attention of the disease that is making previously undiagnosed cases known to the fact that they weren’t detected as a rule years before. Some of these missed cases are in regards to kids and teens who total a number of 20,000 out of 400,000 that had not been diagnosed earlier on as they should’ve been. When kids and teens contract multiple sclerosis it is totally different a situation then if an adult should get the disease. Before we go into detail how multiple sclerosis affects kids and teens and how it is treated. We must first examine multiple sclerosis the disease in brief and take a lot at it up close an personal to understand it is a health issue overall.

What is multiple sclerosis? Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease that affects the Central Nervous System per se. The Central Nervous System involves all that is the brain and the spinal cord as a rule. Multiple sclerosis primarily is a disease that goes after the white matter tissue and causes damage in these nerve fibers that are responsible for sending signals to the CNS and from the CNS to other parts of the body on a regular basis. When the white matter inside the Central Nervous System is ravaged by multiple sclerosis there is a presence of plaque. It is this plaque or lesions as they are so called that show up in the white matter of the CNS.

Multiple sclerosis isn’t an easy disease to put a set of identifying symptoms to and this is because the malady is unpredictable in its onslaught on the person who has been diagnosed with it. The reason that is so is because each case of multiple sclerosis is unique in symptoms depending on how much damage and where the damage is within the Central Nervous System. So symptoms can vary greatly from one case of it as opposed to other cases being treated. Each case of multiple sclerosis varies a whole lot one from the other. So does the factors as to if it is light in its effect on the individual or more severe in delivery. No two cases of multiple sclerosis are alike. The course that multiple sclerosis takes for each person is very different one from the other and this is because of how the disease afflicts each case mainly and if the damage to the CNS is minimal or maximum.

Multiple sclerosis manifests itself in an entirely different way in kids and teens for some reason. So this means that the symptoms that usually accompany adults may not be the same that affects kids and teens. The disease appears usually after kids and teens experience a round of neurological symptoms known as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). These symptoms are thought to not be very long in length and most kids and teens do manage to have a normal recovery. They never appear to have anymore symptoms after that. But the percentages of kids and teens that don’t recover from the ADEM go on to experience more symptoms. Sometimes even new symptoms emerge in this percentage of kids and teens that strongly resemble Multiple Sclerosis.

The progression of Multiple Sclerosis is much slower in kids and teens it is claimed then in adults as a rule. But this subject is open to impression and to debate for a number of reasons. Because Multiple Sclerosis more so favors women as its victims than men. However for kids and teens this isn’t at all the same as in adults. Because the disease afflicts boys and girls equally as much at least up until the time that a young girl enters puberty.

Even after the disease is diagnosed in children and teens the parents’ and the kids and teens they are still left to face many issues.
Some of these things include finding the right neurologist to treat their child. Because adult neurologists don’t have a lot of real experience treating child patients with Multiple Sclerosis and pediatric neurologists don’t know that much about the disorder and have the experience to treat it.

Also a source of major concern is the drugs that treat Multiple Sclerosis as a rule. As they may not be very safe to administer to children since they were made specifically for adults in mind. Because of this, many doctors don’t want to give kids and teens with Multiple Sclerosis, many of these drugs as a treatment alternative.

So Multiple Sclerosis in children can prove to be a real hindrance on all fronts. But just like any other disease the good must be taken with the bad in order to treat the victims of this malady. Whether they be an adult a teen or a child. They are all still in need of treatment no matter what’s what.

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