A look at common neurological disorders and their prevalence

Today, advancements in neuroscience have led to the identification of hundreds of neurological conditions, disorders that vary in symptom and severity from person to person says neuroengineering professional Dr. Curtis Cripe.

Image source: classicrehabilitation.com

While certain conditions are more serious and rarer than others, they are all disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system— affecting the brain, cranial and peripheral nerves, spinal cord, automatic nervous system, muscles, and nerve roots. The most common ones are Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, epilepsy, migraine headache disorders, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, neuro infections, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, and disorders related to head trauma or TBI.

It should be mentioned that a variety of infections can likewise affect the nervous system. These include viral ones like the West Nile, HIV, and Zika virus; bacterial ones like tuberculosis; parasitic infections like malaria; and fungal ones like Aspergillus and Cryptococcus. Also, neurological symptoms may be a result of an immune response or occur due to the infection itself.

Image source: coeliac.org.uk

Today, hundreds of millions are affected by neurological disorders all over the world, Dr. Curtis Cripe adds. Recent studies show that over 50 million people have epilepsy; 47.5 million are suffering from dementia (with Alzheimer’s disease being the leading cause), and more than 6 million people die from stroke each year. Even migraine cases are growing, comprising over 10 percent of global neurological disorders.

Dr. Curtis Cripe is the head of research and development at the NTL Group. He has published two peer-reviewed papers and wrote two book chapters on neurotherapy and neuroengineering. For related posts, visit this blog.