This presentation from the 2023 AACPDM Community Forum presents and overview of the interactions between the types of Cerebral Palsy, Mental and Behavioral Health and various medications and strategies to treat challenging mental health disturbances.
It is important to understand how spasticity can impact the muscles and the know what treatments are available to help.
Adults with Cerebral Palsy have unique care needs related to physiological changes that occurred with growth and development with Cerebral Palsy, including mental health, yet experience many barriers to proper care.
Spasticity is usually caused by central nervous system injuries, such as brain injuries or spinal cord injuries. Spasticity is a little different from stiffness.
Cerebral Palsy affects body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance. Depending on the part of the brain that is injured depends on how someone’s muscle tone will be effected. For people with spastic CP they have increased muscle tone because of the part of the brain that's injured. If causes very tight muscles which in turn effects the movement of the joints and of the limbs. For others who have dyskinetic CP they lose the ability to have voluntary control over their muscles, and they can have jerky and uncontrolled movement patterns.