Several Mysteries Remain
One of the challenges that face medical science comes from the fact that we have four different categories of cerebral palsy. Each category has different characteristics and disabilities, which makes it much harder to treat it as a single illness. Up until the 19th century, doctors never looked deeply into the congenital problems that were acquired from birth injuries. Once doctors began taking a closer look at congenital problems, they began unraveled some of the mysteries like the physiological details of the disease. Further research is required in order to unravel the full mystery. Let’s have a look at the history of CP.
Timeline of Cerebral Palsy
1810: William John Little, one of the first prominent people of the disease, is born in London. He’s the man who pioneered the study of the disease in this field, and he is responsible for helping us to learn more about it.
1830s: William John Little begins his first serious efforts to study this disease and learn more about it. Little suffered partial paralysis as a kid as a result of polio. Because of this, William John Little felt a serious urge to study these conditions to learn more about them. This includes his study of a condition known as spastic displegia, which is characterized as tightness or stiffness in the muscles.
1853: During this time, William John Little published a study called, “On the Nature and Treatment of the Deformities of the Human Frame.” The study looked at a number of birth disorder conditions. This became one of the monumental works for helping us to understand it better.
1897: Sigmund Freud became the first medical researcher who disagreed with the theories that Dr. Little and Dr. Osler put out. While that might sound like a bad thing, in disagreeing with these theories, he helped to improve them. Sigmund Freud made the suggestion that this condition wasn’t muscular, but it was a neurological disorder that began in the brain. Researchers learned that Sigmund Freud was right.
1963: In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed a bill that stipulates how children who have mental disabilities could receive care within the community, instead of needing institutionalization, which in many cases led to poor treatment of the patients.